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Communications Companies Business Models

Code: 104994 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2501933 Journalism OT 3
2501933 Journalism OT 4

Contact

Name:
Xavier Ribes Guardia
Email:
xavier.ribes@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

Elective course of third and fourth year in the Degree of Journalism. It will be necessary for the students to have knowledge of current issues, and to demonstrate the ability to use Catalan and Spanish correctly orally and in writing. It must be taken into account that the students will have completed compulsory courses related to this course and that this will allow them to already have the necessary technical skills for the development of specific activities.


Objectives and Contextualisation

1. Integrate the business dimension into the concept of journalism and the media.
2. Use market and business analysis models.
3. Know different cases of journalistic companies and the current trends in terms of product design and the impact of the technological environment on the production of content, its consumption and its monetization.
4. Develop and present an own business plan in the field of communication.


Competences

    Journalism
  • Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  • 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.
  • Introduce changes in the methods and processes of the field of knowledge to provide innovative responses to the needs and demands of society.
  • 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 be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • 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

  1. Analyse a situation and identify its points for improvement.
  2. Analyse the economic dimension of the media.
  3. Analyse the indicators of sustainability of academic and professional activities in the areas of knowledge, integrating social, economic and environmental dimensions.
  4. Compare Catalonia's socio-communicative reality with the Spanish and European context from the point of view of cultural industries.
  5. Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  6. Describe the structure, workings and management of the communication business.
  7. Explain Catalonia's socio-communicative reality in the Spanish and European context from the economic and business point of view.
  8. Identify situations in which a change or improvement is needed.
  9. Identify the social, economic and environmental implications of academic and professional activities within one's own area of knowledge.
  10. Propose new methods or well-founded alternative solutions.
  11. Propose new ways to measure the success or failure of the implementation of innovative proposals or ideas.
  12. Propose projects and actions that incorporate the gender perspective.
  13. Propose viable projects and actions to boost social, economic and environmental benefits.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  17. Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  18. Weigh up the risks and opportunities of both one's own and other people's proposals for improvement.

Content

1. Journalism as a business mission.
2. The public: habits and informational needs.
3. Information products, business models and digital environment.
4. Business project in the field of communication.

 

(*) The detailed calendar with the content of the different sessions will be displayed on the day of presentation of the course. It will also be posted on the Virtual Campus where students will be able to find the detailed description of the exercises and practices, the different teaching materials and any information necessary for the proper follow-up of the course. In the event of a change in teaching modality for health reasons, the professors will inform of the changes that will occur in the programming of the subject and in the teaching methodologies.

In one of the sessions of the subject, about 15 minutes will be allocated so that the students can respond to the surveys to evaluate the teaching performance and to evaluate the subject or module.


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Seminars and exercises 33 1.32 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Theoretical Classes 15 0.6 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 17, 18
Type: Supervised      
Mentorship 42 1.68 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous work 60 2.4 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

The development of the course will be carried out within the following teaching methodologies:

master classes

seminars

inverted classes

case studies

Learning by doing

guest sessions

Development and presentation of the final project

 

The main activity of the course is the final work, a communication company project, which will be constantly tutored in the small groups of the course.

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Final exam 30% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Final project 40% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Oral presentation (final project) 20% 0 0 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16
Participation in course activities 10% 0 0 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10, 16, 17

Evaluation activities:

A. 40% development of a business communication project.

B. 20% presentation of the elaborated project

C. 30% final exam

D. 10% class participation.

 

The evaluation will consist of three parts: the theoretical part, the elaboration and presentation of a business communication project and the participation in the sessions. The project will have a weight of 60% on the final mark (40% the project and 20% the presentation).

The theoretical exam (30% of the final mark) will be the written theoretical resolution of problems and situations related to what was explained in class.

 

In case of fail any of the three activities, not all of them will be able to recover. The project and its presentation (as well as class participation) cannot be recovered, they are group practices that are carried out during a big part of the semester. The theoretical exam can be recovered at the end of the semester.

 

This subject does not contemplate the realization of a single evaluation, nor a synthesis test for second registrations.

 

Plagiarism:

The student who performs any irregularity (copying, plagiarism, identity theft,...) will be graded with 0 for this act of evaluation. In the event that various irregularities occur, the final grade for the course will be 0.


Bibliography

Basic

Cerezo, P. (2022). Deconstruyendo los medios: Cómo adaptar las empresas de comunicación al entorno digital. Almuzara.

Newman, N. (2023). Periodismo, medios y tecnología: tendencias y predicciones para 2023. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. Disponible en: <https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/es/periodismo-medios-y-tecnologia-tendencias-y-predicciones-para-2023>

Newman, N., Robertson, C. T., Eddy K., Nielsen R. K., (2023). Digital News Report 2022. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. Disponible en:
<https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/es/digital-news-report/2022>


Additional

Cerezo, P. (2018). Los medios líquidos: la transformación de los modelos de negocio. Editorial UOC.

Cerezo, P. (2019). Los medios ante los modelos de suscripción. Editorial UOC.

Clark, T., Osterwalder, A. y Pigneur, Y. (2012). Tu modelo de negocio. Editorial Deusto.

Covey, S. (2011). Los 7 hábitos de la gente altamente efectiva. Booket.


Software

As it is a practical course, the required software is the usual one for carrying out the journalistic tasks of producing content in different formats.

Specifically, the following tools are required:

Audio editing software: Audacity
Text editing software: Word or similar
Image editing software: Canva
Data analysis software: Excel or similar


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(SEM) Seminars 11 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed