Communication and Public Opinion
Code: 104797 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Communication in Organisations | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Santiago Javier Justel Vazquez
- Email:
- santiago.justel@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
Students are required to be aware of current political and social issues. A proactive, participatory attitude, an interest in the geopolitical context and a sensitivity to local social conflicts are also indispensable conditions.
Objectives and Contextualisation
- Analyze the processes involved in the creation of public opinion.
- Analyze the contribution and influence of the media on democracy.
- Identify political actors (in a broad sense of the term) and civil society, and establish their relationships with the media.
- Reflect on new phenomena related to public opinion in the digital public sphere.
Competences
- Apply specific research methodologies to formulate hypotheses, validate and verify ideas and concepts and interpret data on communication in organisations.
- Differentiate the principal theories on communication in organisations, which underpin knowledge of the discipline and its different branches.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
Learning Outcomes
- Analyse the media's influence on public opinion.
- Apply research methods appropriate to the field of communication when doing coursework.
- Present a summary of the studies made, orally and in writing.
- Present the objectives of the course to all kinds of audiences.
Content
- An approach to the concept of public opinion
- Mass media and public opinion
- Political communication and electoral campaigns
- Internet and the digital public sphere: collective mobilization online
- Current challenges of the public sphere: populism, polarization, disinformation, and hate speech
Note: The course content will be sensitive to issues related to gender perspective and the use of inclusive language.
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Theory and classroom activities | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 3 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Seminars | 14 | 0.56 | 1, 4, 3 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Personal study | 54 | 2.16 | 1, 2 |
The teaching will use a combination of teaching methods to promote student learning:
Directed activities
a) Lectures: in these sessions the lecturer will cover the basic concepts and notions of the subject and will allow students to discuss and reflect on the main content through active participation.
b) Seminar: work sessions focused on readings, oral activities or group presentations, individual work.
Supervised activities
a) Tutorial meetings: students will have acces to lecturer in the subject at certain times which may help to clear up any doubts that they may have about the subject
b) Evaluation sessions.
Autonomous activities
a) Self-organized work: reading texts and the search for information, writing individual work.
A detailed schedule outlining the content of each session will be presented on the first day of the course and will be available on the course’s Virtual Campus, where students will find all teaching materials and necessary information for eƯective course monitoring. Should the teaching modality change for reasons of force majeure according to the competent authorities, the teaching staƯ will inform students of any modifications to the course schedule and teaching 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.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual written work | 30 % in the final grade | 26 | 1.04 | 1, 4, 2 |
| Participation in the classroom | 10% on the final grade | 8 | 0.32 | 3, 2 |
| Seminar | 20 % in the final grade | 14 | 0.56 | 1, 3, 2 |
| Synthesis exam | 40% on the final grade | 4 | 0.16 | 1, 3 |
Continuous assessment
Theoretical exam: 50%
In-class activities: 15%
Seminar: Oral presentation of an individual or group project on a topic or reading related to the subject: 35%
Single assessment
Theoretical exam: 50%
Individual project on a topic or reading related to the subject: 35%
Submission of a practical activity: 15%
To pass the course, students must obtain a minimum score of 4 in the synthesis exam.
The following activities are excluded from the resit process: the seminar and the project.
Not evaluable
Students who do not take the theoretical test, do not submit the activities to class or do not do the individual or group work.
Resit for continuous assessment
Theoretical knowledge exam
The following activities are excluded from the resit process: the seminar, class participation activities, and the individual course project.
Students will have the right to resit the course if they have been assessed in activities that account for at least two-thirds of the total course grade. To be eligible for the resit, students must have obtained an average grade of 3.5 or higher.
Resit for single assessment
Theoretical knowledge exam
The following activities are excluded from the resit process: the seminar, class participation activities, and the individual course project.
Students enrolled for the second time: final assessment
In the case of second-time enrollment, students may take a single synthesis exam at the end of the semester. The final course grade will be the grade obtained on that exam.
Plagiarism
In the event that the studentperforms any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation of an evaluation act, this evaluation act will be graded with0, 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.
AI
For this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is permitted exclusively for Support tasks, such as bibliographic or information searches, text correction, or translations.
Bibliography
Canel, María José. 2006. Comunicación política: Una guía para su estudio y práctica. Madrid: Tecnos.
Chadwick, Andrew. 2017. The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Curran, James. 2011. Media and Democracy. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Donsbach, Wolfgang & Michael W. Traugott, eds. 2008. The Sage Handbook of Public Opinion Research. London-Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Esser, Frank & Jesper Strömbäck, eds. 2014. Meditatization of Politics: Understanding the Transformation of Western Democracies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gerbaudo, Paolo. 2019. The digital party: Political organisation and online democracy. Londres: Pluto Press.
Kriesi, Hanspeter; Lavenex, Sandra; Esser, Frank; Matthes, Jörg; Bühlmann, Marc & Bochsler, Daniel. 2013. Democracy in the Age of Globalization and Mediatization. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ortega, Felix. 2011. La política mediatizada. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Semetko, Holli & Margaret Scammell, eds. 2012. The SAGE Handbook of Political Communication. Londres: Sage Publications.
Street, John. 2001. Mass media, politics and democracy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Software
For this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is permitted exclusively for Support tasks, such as bibliographic or information searches, text correction, or translations.
Groups and Languages
Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (SEM) Seminars | 71 | Catalan/Spanish | second semester | afternoon |
| (TE) Theory | 7 | Spanish | second semester | afternoon |