Communication Structure
Code: 103855 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2501933 Journalism | FB | 1 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Ana Fernández Viso
- Email:
- ana.fernandez.viso@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
Teachers
- Aida Martori Muntsant
- Ana Fernández Viso
- Nuria Torras Planas
- Angel Castellanos Diaz
Prerequisites
Follow-up of news about the media system (mainly in Catalonia, Spain and Europe) is recommended.
Objectives and Contextualisation
To provide students with an introduction to the knowledge of structural features of media systems in the Western European environment, with special attention to Spanish and Catalan cases, where he/she will develop his/her professional activity.
Thus, in the first approach the economical, political and social actors that make up or contribute to the formation of these systemes will be considered, without neglecting the analysis of the North American model, due to its influence on the development of European and Latin American media systems. On the other hand, emphasis will be placed on the impact of the Internet and digitalization on the redesign of communication structure at local, state and international levels.
Eventually, aspects related to other media systems can be included if a particularly relevant fact occurs.
Competences
- Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
- Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
- Demonstrate a self-learning and self-demanding capacity to ensure an efficient job.
- Demonstrate adequate knowledge of Catalonia's socio-communicative reality in the Spanish, European and global context.
- Differentiate the discipline's main theories, its fields, conceptual developments, theoretical frameworks and approaches that underpin knowledge of the subject and its different areas and sub-areas, and acquire systematic knowledge of the media's structure.
- Disseminate the area's knowledge and innovations.
- Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Take account of social, economic and environmental impacts when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
- Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse the sex- or gender-based inequalities and the gender biases present in one's own area of knowledge.
- Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
- Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
- Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
- Demonstrate a self-learning and self-demanding capacity to ensure an efficient job.
- Describe the structure of the media and its dynamics.
- Disseminate the area's knowledge and innovations.
- Identify the media system and groups that have had, at a given point in time, the power to inform, and be able to describe the legal framework that exerts a certain governance on the media.
- Identify the principal forms of sex- or gender-based inequality and discrimination present in society.
- Identify the social, economic and environmental implications of academic and professional activities within one's own area of knowledge.
- Identify the structural foundations of the communication system.
- Interpret and discuss texts regarding the main communication and journalism theories and present the summary of the analysis in writing and in public.
- Propose projects and actions that are in accordance with the principles of ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and obligations, diversity and democratic values.
- Research, select and arrange in hierarchical order any kind of source and useful document to develop communication products.
- Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
- Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
- Weigh up the impact of any long- or short-term difficulty, harm or discrimination that could be caused to certain persons or groups by the actions or projects.
Content
1. Conceptual delineation and theoretical perspectives. What is a media system? Typology, characteristics and actors. Comparing media systems.
2. Analysis of actors that contribute to the articulation of media systems: public media, private communication groups, business associations, audience measurement bodies and telecommunications companies and digital platforms with businesses in the audiovisual field. The role of the State and independent regulators.
3. Analysis of media sectors (press, radio, television and digital environment). General overview, characteristics of the offer and regulation. Transformation of business or consumption models.
Methodology
Two thirds of face-to-face teaching will be developed with the full group and a third, in seminars with small groups.
Sessions with the full group will consist of lectures, that may include interactive activitites, held by the faculty, who will explain the contents related to the thematic blocks and solve the doubts regarding the compulsory readings that the students have to do and the work resulting from the planned self-learning work.
The seminars will include practical activities aimed at helping to develop a deep understanding of the course topics. It may require searching and analyzing in advance different types of learning resources (pieces of news, academic texts, reports, etc.). Current issues will be shared and discussed, with the active participation of students, in order to update the agenda and identify key elements relating to the evolution of media systems. It is mandatory to attend at least 80% of the seminar sessions.
The approach of the subject will incorporate the gender perspective in all possible aspects, from the contents to the methodologies applied to the dynamics of work and student participation in the classroom, so as to facilitate an egalitarian interaction.
On the day of the presentation of the subject, more detailed information on the organization of the sessions will be given. The Virtual Campus will also be used to upload teaching materials and information for the proper follow-up of the subject.
In case of a change of teaching modality for health reasons, teachers will make readjustments in the schedule and methodologies.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Seminars | 17 | 0.68 | 14, 5, 6, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16 |
| Theory | 34 | 1.36 | 3, 14, 5, 6, 4, 7, 8, 11, 10, 12, 13, 18, 17, 16 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Evaluation | 7 | 0.28 | 3, 14, 5, 6, 4, 7, 8, 11, 10, 12, 18, 16 |
| Tutorial | 5 | 0.2 | |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Personal study | 80 | 3.2 | 3, 14, 5, 6, 4, 8, 11, 10, 18, 16 |
Assessment
The course consists of the following assessment activities:
1. Exercises related to the issues discussed in the seminar and qualitative participation in them, which will account for 30% of the grade. Attendance to at least 80% of the seminar sessions is compulsory. Due to its nature linked to current events, the evaluation activities of the seminar will not be recoverable.
2. Two mid-term exams on the theoretical contents, each one of which represents 35 % of the final qualification, and that are liberatory.
In order to pass the course, a grade equal to or higher than 4 must be obtained in both midterm exams and the average of both must be equal to or higher than 5. In case of failing, you can take part in the recovery, as long as you have previously assessed the two midterm exams.
If one of the two partial exams is not taken the final grade will be "not assessable".
In the event that the recovery of one of the two exams is not passed, because a grade lower than 4 is obtained in it or, even being between 4 and 4.9, the student does not achieve an average grade of 5 with the other midterm exam, the final grade of the course will be the one obtained in this failed exam (or the average of the two midterm exams if both are failed).
The dates of the evaluation and recovery activities will be announced on the day of the presentation of the subject. The information will also be available on the virtual campus.
Second enrollment students:
From the second enrollment onwards, students may choose to be evaluated A) by the same evaluation system as the first enrollment students, C) by the single evaluation system or C) only by taking the two mid-term exams provided for the first enrollment students, but in order to pass they must obtain a grade equal to or higher than 4 in these two mid-term exams and the average of both must be equal to or higher than 5. In case of failing, students will be able to opt for the recovery of each one of the mid-term exams, as long as they have been previously evaluated in both of them.
If the student chooses the third evaluation system (system C), the grade of the course will correspond to the average of these two mid-term exams, as long as he/she has obtained a grade equal to or higher than 4 in both of them. If one of them is not taken, the final grade will be "not evaluable" and if one of them is failed with a grade lower than 4, the final grade of the course will be the one obtained in this exam (or the average between the two, if both are failed).
It will be understood that students from the second registration who do not communicate explicitly by e-mail and within the deadline announced at the beginning of the course their assessment option will take the two mid-term examen.
Single evaluation
The single evaluation of the course consists of the following activities and percentages:
1. Control of knowledge: 40% - Theoretical test (multiple choice) on all the contents of the course. In order to obtain an average with the other two evaluation activities and be able to pass the course, a grade equal to or higher than 4 must be obtained in this theoretical test (essential condition). In case of failing with a grade lower than 4, the final grade of the course will be the grade of this test.
2. Written exercise of reflection and argumentation on the contents of the course: 30%. It will take place on the same day as the knowledge control.
3. Realization of one or several practical exercises related to the issues covered in the seminar: 30%. It will be done on the same day as the two previous activities. This activity cannot be recovered, so, in case of having to take the recovery, the grade obtained in this exercise in the first call will be maintained.
1 (40%) + 2 (30%) + 3 (30%) = 100% FINAL GRADE OF THE SUBJECT.
In order to pass the course a final grade equal or higher than 5 must be obtained.The date of the revision of the grades will be the same as for the students of continuous evaluation and will be announced in class.
CALENDAR OF EVALUATION ACTIVITIES
The dates of the evaluation and recovery activities will be announced on the day of the presentation of the course. this information will also be available on the Virtual Campus.
PLAGIARISM
In the event that the student performs any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that could be instructed. In the event, that several irregularities occur in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-term exams | 35% + 35% | 3 | 0.12 | 3, 2, 5, 6, 4, 7, 8, 11, 10, 12, 18, 17, 15, 16 |
| Seminar exercices and qualitative participation | 30% | 4 | 0.16 | 3, 1, 14, 2, 5, 6, 4, 7, 8, 11, 10, 9, 12, 13, 18, 17, 15, 16, 19 |
Bibliography
Basic bibliography:
CEREZO, Pepe (2022). Deconstruyendo los medios. Cómo adaptar las empresas de comunicación al entorno digital. Córdoba: Editorial Almuzara.
LÓPEZ, Bernat; HUERTAS BAILÉN, Amparo; PERES-NETO, Luis, eds. (2023): Informe de la comunicació a Catalunya 2021–2022. Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès): Generalitat de Catalunya i Institut de la Comunicació (InCom-UAB).
HALLIN, Daniel; MANCINI, Paolo (2008). Sistemas de medios comparados. Tres modelos de relación entre los medios de comunicación y la política. Barcelona: Hacer.
NEWMAN, Nic; FLETCHER, Richard; EDDY, Kirsten; ROBERTSON, Craig T.; KLEIS NIELSEN, Rasmus. (2023). Digital News Report 2023. Oxford: Reuters Institute. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2023-06/Digital_News_Report_2023.pdf
Additional bibliography:
AGUADO-GUADALUPE, Guadalupe (2018). Las relaciones Prensa-Estado en el reparto de publicidad institucional en España. Estudios sobre el mensaje periodístico, 24 (2), 993-1005.
BREVINI, Benedetta & SWIATEK, Lukasz (2021). Amazon: understanding a global communication giant. Routledge.
CAGÉ, Julia (2016). Salvar los medios decomunicación. Barcelona: Anagrama.
CONSELL DE L'AUDIOVISUAL DE CATALUNYA (2023). Informe 2022. L'audiovisual a Catalunya. Barcelona: Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya.
DÖNDERS, Karen (2019). Public service media between theory, rules and practice. Londres: Palgrave Macmillan.
DOYLE, Gillian (2018) Television and the development of the data economy: data analysis, power and the public interest. International Journal of Digital Television, 9(1), pp. 53-68.
FERNÁNDEZ ALONSO, Isabel (Ed.) (2017). Austeridad y clientelismo. Política audiovisual en España en el contexto mediterráneo y de la crisis financiera. Barcelona: Gedisa.
GARCÍA SANTAMARÍA, José Vicente (2016). Los grupos multimedia españoles. Análisis y estrategias. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
GOYANES, Manuel & CAMPOS-RUEDA, Marcela (Eds.). Gestión de medios Públicos en el Entorno Digital. Valencia: Tirant Humanidades.
MCDONALD, Paul (Ed.) (2022). The Routledge Companion to Media Industries. Routledge.
PEIRANO, Marta (2019). El enemigo conoce el sistema: Manipulación de ideas, personas e influencias después de la economía de la atención. Barcelona: Debate.
TÚÑEZ-LÓPEZ, Miguel; CAMPOS-FREIRE, Francisco; y RODRÍGUEZ-CASTRO, Marta (Eds.) (2021). The values of public service media in the Internet society. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
ZALLO, Ramón (2011). Estructuras de la comunicación y la cultura. Políticas para la era digital. Barcelona: Gedisa.
Software
Basic tools of Microsoft Office package, Moodle applications and free online learning platforms.