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Communication, Development, and Social Change

Code: 42440 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
4313227 Media, Communication and Culture OT 0

Contact

Name:
Ana Isabel Fernández Viso
Email:
ana.fernandez.viso@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

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


Prerequisites

  • Basic knowledge of communication theories and sociology.
  • Basic skills for the design and execution of either a research project  or a strategic communication project.
  • Those of the Master.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The basic objectives of the module are the following:
 
  1. Reflecting on the relationship between communication, power and culture.
  2. Making a critical reflection on the relationship between communication, development, democracy and social change.
  3. Identifying the main academic and professional contributions to the study of communication for development and social change.
  4. Analyzing the role of the traditional and new media in the processes of social change.
  5. Getting to know the main methodologies of communication for development and social change.
  6. Acquiring skills to formulate and manage projects of communication for social change in diverse contexts and environments.
  7. Design projects / communication plans for social change.

Competences

  • Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously.
  • Lead and work in interdisciplinary teams.
  • Plan and lead basic and applied research projects in media communication and culture.
  • Plan, direct and evaluate policies on culture and communication in both the local and the international fields using the new forms of social communication
  • Plan, direct and evaluate public communication projects to meet the needs of institutions, businesses and social organisations.
  • Use acquired knowledge as a basis for originality in the application of ideas, often in a research context.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Continue the learning process, to a large extent autonomously.
  2. Design and direct comunication projects.
  3. Develop innovative proposals regarding communication policies for development.
  4. Develop research projects on communication for development and social change.
  5. Evaluate the results of communication projects of institutions, companies, associations, foundations and other entities.
  6. Generate ideas and innovative solutions regarding communication, development and social change.
  7. Lead and work in interdisciplinary teams.
  8. Recognize the scope and application of the current policies of communication for development.
  9. Use acquired knowledge as a basis for originality in the application of ideas, often in a research context.

Content

Brief description of the contents of the module:
 
  1. Introduction to the concepts of development, social change and global justice: Causes and dynamics of generation of inequalities.
  2. Culture, communication and power: basic conceptual approach.
  3. Introduction to debate on the role of communication in the processes of development and social change.
  4. Historical evolution of the design and the practice of communication strategies for development and social change.
  5. Communication, democracy and social change in the current digital environment.
  6. Practical construction of a communication strategy for social change.
 The content of the module will be sensitive to cultural diversity and aspects related to the gender perspective.
 
 

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Case analysis 30 1.2 1, 7, 9
Review of theories of development and communication for social change 30 1.2 1, 9
Type: Supervised      
Design of a communication project for social change   40 1.6 1, 7, 9
Type: Autonomous      
Readings, seminar dynamics. 50 2 1, 7, 9

The pedagogical method will be based on the collective construction of knowledge, based, on the one hand, on the debate generated by the lecturer's explanations, the presentations prepared by the students on reference readings on the subject and the common analysis of practical cases and, on the other hand, on project-based learning.

This approach will take the form of five complementary working dynamics:
 
1.    Explanations by the lecturer on the more theoretical aspects of the course.
2.    Collaborative workshop on reference readings in the field of communication, development and social change.
3.    Analysis and presentation by the students of practical cases.
4.    Design in small groups of a strategic communication project for social change, under the tutoring of the lecturer.
5.    Presentation and discussion in class of the communicative strategies designed by the students.
 
 

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
Analysis and discussion of case studies 25% 0 0 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Collaborative workshop on reference readings 25% 0 0 1, 5, 6, 8, 9
Design of a communication project for social change or alternative work 50% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9

Evaluation:
 
The students of the module will be evaluated based on the three main working dynamics of the module:
 

1. The realization of a specific communicative project for a social group, a Third Sector organization or a development cooperation organization, taking into account the key lines of the communication for social change discipline. Alternatively, a task of theoretical reflection or critical analysis and reformulation of a practical case may also be carried out. This project or the analysis must be previously agreed with the lecturer. (50%)


2. Reading workshop that the students will have to prepare and present in class, as a previous step to the debate on the issues and ideas addressed in the texts. In the session following the debate on each reading, a critical assessment of the debate will have to be handed in with a length of no more than 2,000 words. (25%)


3. Analysis, presentation and discussion in class of case studies of communication strategies for development and/or social change. (25%)

Single evaluation:

It is not considered in this module.

Reassessment:

Only the communicative project/analysis can be retaken, applying the knowledge acquired in the course and following the guidelines provided by the teacher in the grade review process. The maximum grade that can be achieved in the retake assessment is a 7, which will be weighted average with the grades obtained in the other two evaluative activities of the module.


Bibliography

Basic bibliography:

BELTRÁN, Luis Ramiro (2005): "La comunicación para el desarrollo en Latinoamérica. Un recuento de medio siglo". Available on: https://revistas.udem.edu.co/index.php/anagramas/article/view/1117/1090

COULDRY, Nick (2010). Why voice matters. Culture and politics after neoliberalism. London: Sage.

DAVIS, Aeron; FENTON, Natalie, FREEDMAN, Des; & KHIABANY, Gholam. (2020). Media, Democracy and Social Change. Re-imagining Political Communications. London: Sage.

De-ANDRÉS, Susana & CHAPARRO, Manuel. (2022). Comunicación radical. Despatriarcalizar, descolonizar y ecologizar la cultura mediática. Barcelona: Gedisa.

FERNÁNDEZ-VISO, Ana. (2013). Medios de comunicación y modelos de desarrollo: de la modernización al buen gobierno. Revista Orbis, 24 (año 9), 132-158. http://www.revistaorbis.org/pdf/24/art8.pdf

GUMUCIO DAGRON, Alfonso. (2001): Haciendo Olas, Historias de comunicación participativa para el cambio social. La paz: Fundación Rockefeller.

GUMUCIO DAGRON, Alfonso & TUFTE, Thomas. (2008): Antología de comunicación para el cambio social: lecturas históricas y contemporáneas. SouthOrange, NJ: Consorcio de Comunicación para el Cambio Social.

GWINN WILKINS, Karen; TUFTE, Thomas; & OBREGÓN, Rafael. (2014): The Handbook of Development Communication and Social Change. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

HAN, Byung-Chul. (2022). Infocracia. La digitalización y la crisis de la democracia. Barcelona: Taurus.

JONES, Owen (2013). Chavs: la demonización de la clase obrera. Madrid: Capitán Swing.

KOTHARI, Ashish; SALLEH, Ariel; ESCOBAR, Arturo; DEMARIA, Federico; y ACOSTA, Alberto (Eds.) (2019). Pluriverse. APost-development Dictionary. Shahpur Jat (New Delhi): Tulika Books.

LIE, Rico; y SERVAES, Jan (2015). Disciplines in the Field of Communication for Development and Social Change. Communication Theory, 25 (2), 244-258. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12065

PAXTON,Robert (2006): Anatomía del fascismo. Madrid: Capitán Swing.

PIKETTY, Thomas (2019). Capital e ideología. Barcelona: Ediciones Deusto.

SCOTT, Martin. (2014). Media and development. London: Zed Books.

SERVAES, Jan. (2021). Learning from Communicators in Social Change. Rethinking the Power of Development. Singapor: Springer.

THOMAS, Pradip Ninan (2019). Communication for Social Change: Context, Social Movements and the Digital. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi: Sage.

TUFTE, Thomas. (2015). Comunicación para el cambio social. La participación y el empoderamiento como base para el desarrollo mundial. Barcelona: Icaria.

WILKINSON, Richard; & PICKETT, Kate (2019). Igualdad: Cómo las sociedades más igualitarias mejoran el bienestar colectivo. Madrid: Capitán Swing.

VV.AA. (2009): Metodologías participativas. Manual. Madrid: CIMAS. Available on: https://www.redcimas.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/manual_2010.pdf

 

This bibliography will be complemented with additional readings that will be discussed in the reading workshop.


Software

The module does not require the knowledge of specialized software beyond the usual office automation packages.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TEm) Theory (master) 40 Spanish second semester afternoon