Sociology of Communication
A.Y. 2022/2023
Learning objectives
To offer a general theoretical standpoint to analyze critically and sociologically communication-related issues, both about interpersonal and mediated communication.
Expected learning outcomes
Mastering the basic concepts for interpreting communication phenomena, acquiring critical tools to apply the sociological imagination to everyday life and to media texts surrounding us. Link different sociological theories and use them in the analysis of communication.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
Course syllabus
The course starts from an approach that considers communication as a social relationship and at the same time highlights how every social relationship contains a communicative dimension.
The leitmotif of the course will be communicative practices, analyzed along the three dimensions of face-to-face interpersonal communication, media practices (related to both traditional and new media), and cultural industry practices, with specific attention to the sectors in which the dynamics related to communication are most evident.
These dimensions will be related to the processes of construction of social reality and definition of the situation, and to the dynamics of everyday life, from the construction of the self to the processes of identification, from family relationships to sentimental ones, always keeping in mind the transversal category of power. In particular, the course intends to address the following thematic cores:
1. Living in a world of meanings: symbols, channels, codes etc.
2. Social situations, frames and language as horizons of meaning
3. Media as constructors of meaning
4. Cultural industries as meaning makers
5. Platforms and social networks as constructors of meanings
6. The construction of identity in face-to-face and mediated interaction
7. Consumption as communication and identity vehicle
8. Genres and collective identifications.
Students taking this course are expected to acquire four core competencies:
1. The ability to read and comprehend sociological texts.
2. The ability to master key concepts and themes of sociological reflection on communication.
3. The ability to analyze media texts of various kinds and, more generally, communicative dynamics, using the concepts of the sociological discipline
4. The ability to use the theoretical concepts learned in order to analyse everyday life situations.
The leitmotif of the course will be communicative practices, analyzed along the three dimensions of face-to-face interpersonal communication, media practices (related to both traditional and new media), and cultural industry practices, with specific attention to the sectors in which the dynamics related to communication are most evident.
These dimensions will be related to the processes of construction of social reality and definition of the situation, and to the dynamics of everyday life, from the construction of the self to the processes of identification, from family relationships to sentimental ones, always keeping in mind the transversal category of power. In particular, the course intends to address the following thematic cores:
1. Living in a world of meanings: symbols, channels, codes etc.
2. Social situations, frames and language as horizons of meaning
3. Media as constructors of meaning
4. Cultural industries as meaning makers
5. Platforms and social networks as constructors of meanings
6. The construction of identity in face-to-face and mediated interaction
7. Consumption as communication and identity vehicle
8. Genres and collective identifications.
Students taking this course are expected to acquire four core competencies:
1. The ability to read and comprehend sociological texts.
2. The ability to master key concepts and themes of sociological reflection on communication.
3. The ability to analyze media texts of various kinds and, more generally, communicative dynamics, using the concepts of the sociological discipline
4. The ability to use the theoretical concepts learned in order to analyse everyday life situations.
Prerequisites for admission
Good knowledge in the humanities, curiosity and aptitude to observe and describe the world.
Teaching methods
The course will follow a flipped mode, alternating moments of individual study, frontal lessons and laboratories. The course page on the Moodle platform will be the main reference point of the course. During classroom lessons, dialogue between students and teachers will be encouraged - within the limits of the large number of students enrolled in the course - through moments of collective clarification of the readings carried out independently and in groups, using interactive tools (e.g. instant poll) and multimedia.
Those who intend to attend the course must therefore, every week, participate in the frontal classroom lesson; read the material made available by the teacher; work in groups according to the methods that will be indicated. The working groups will be defined at the beginning of the course and will remain the same for the entire duration of the course. The amount of weekly readings will be about 70/75 pages, divided between parts of the manuals and essays assigned by the teacher lesson by lesson.
The general structure of the lessons will be as follows:
- Tuesday: the Tuesday lesson will focus on the clarification of doubts and reflections that emerged from the reading of the texts assigned the previous week, starting with short papers produced by the students. There will also be the use of interactive software to collect questions and requests for further study from each group, which will guide the reflection in the classroom.
- Wednesday: frontal lesson usable in the classroom or in streaming, in which the new contents of the week will be presented.
- Thursday: the lesson on Thursday will be of a laboratory nature. The students, divided into groups, will engage in small laboratory exercises with the aim of putting into practice the concepts illustrated in the lesson of the previous day (for example, applying them to the analysis of journalistic texts, film, etc.). These labs will not be graded, but are intended to help students become familiar with the concepts found within the essays assigned for the week.
Those who intend to attend the course must therefore, every week, participate in the frontal classroom lesson; read the material made available by the teacher; work in groups according to the methods that will be indicated. The working groups will be defined at the beginning of the course and will remain the same for the entire duration of the course. The amount of weekly readings will be about 70/75 pages, divided between parts of the manuals and essays assigned by the teacher lesson by lesson.
The general structure of the lessons will be as follows:
- Tuesday: the Tuesday lesson will focus on the clarification of doubts and reflections that emerged from the reading of the texts assigned the previous week, starting with short papers produced by the students. There will also be the use of interactive software to collect questions and requests for further study from each group, which will guide the reflection in the classroom.
- Wednesday: frontal lesson usable in the classroom or in streaming, in which the new contents of the week will be presented.
- Thursday: the lesson on Thursday will be of a laboratory nature. The students, divided into groups, will engage in small laboratory exercises with the aim of putting into practice the concepts illustrated in the lesson of the previous day (for example, applying them to the analysis of journalistic texts, film, etc.). These labs will not be graded, but are intended to help students become familiar with the concepts found within the essays assigned for the week.
Teaching Resources
1) Boccia Artieri, G., Colombo F., Gili G., Comunicare. Persone, relazioni, media, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2022
2) Bentivegna S., Boccia Artieri G., Le teorie delle comunicazioni di massa e la sfida digitale, Editori Laterza, 2019
3) Journal articles and essays uploaded in Moodle.
2) Bentivegna S., Boccia Artieri G., Le teorie delle comunicazioni di massa e la sfida digitale, Editori Laterza, 2019
3) Journal articles and essays uploaded in Moodle.
Assessment methods and Criteria
Modalità di verifica per frequentanti (english version)
The evaluation of those who choose to take the course will be the outcome of a weighting of three tests, according to the percentage values expressed in parentheses:
- Tests (35%): students will take three closed-ended tests. The final grade will consist of the average of the three tests. In order to access the evaluation of the subsequent tests of the attending course, the student must have an average equal to or greater than 18, and obtain a sufficiency in at least two tests out of the three total. If a student is insufficient in this phase, he/she will have to take the entire exam according to the procedures provided by the non-attending course.
- Team work on the bibliographical material (25%): before the lesson on Tuesday of each week, starting from the essays read, from the manual and from the lessons, the group will have to post on the Moodle platform a short and schematic output, in which they will indicate: the main points touched by the authors, connections with what was presented in the asynchronous lessons, with relevant topical examples and with the other texts read during the course. Besides serving as a basis for the classroom discussion of the Tuesday lesson, at the end of the entire course, two of these works will be evaluated for each group: one will be chosen by the group itself, the other will be drawn by the teacher among the remaining works (with the exception of the one of the first week, which will serve essentially as a "gym" for the following works)
- Thesis (40%): individual work (precise indications on the number of pages, etc., will be provided at the time of the assignment, at the end of the course) to be submitted at least 15 days in advance of the exam in which you intend to participate. The paper will focus on the sociologically oriented analysis of a personal situation of daily life, through the use of concepts examined during the course, referring to the essays and materials previously analyzed.
Modalità di verifica per non frequentanti (english version)
Non-attending students will be evaluated on the same syllabus as the attending students: the manuals and essays indicated in the bibliography, which will be assigned weekly and published - where allowed - on Moodle. The exam will consist of a two-part test. The first part will consist of a test composed of closed-ended questions, aimed at assessing the knowledge of the bibliographic material in the program. This part of the exam is to be considered preparatory to the continuation of the test: a negative evaluation, therefore, will result in failing the exam. The second part of the exam will consist of two open-ended questions to be completed in two hours. In the first one, students will be given a text to comment on. In the second, they will be asked to analyze an everyday life situation employing the concepts learned in the course. The final grade will be made up of 40% from the result of the written closed-ended question, 30% from the answer to the first open-ended question, and 30% from the answer to the second open-ended question.
The evaluation of those who choose to take the course will be the outcome of a weighting of three tests, according to the percentage values expressed in parentheses:
- Tests (35%): students will take three closed-ended tests. The final grade will consist of the average of the three tests. In order to access the evaluation of the subsequent tests of the attending course, the student must have an average equal to or greater than 18, and obtain a sufficiency in at least two tests out of the three total. If a student is insufficient in this phase, he/she will have to take the entire exam according to the procedures provided by the non-attending course.
- Team work on the bibliographical material (25%): before the lesson on Tuesday of each week, starting from the essays read, from the manual and from the lessons, the group will have to post on the Moodle platform a short and schematic output, in which they will indicate: the main points touched by the authors, connections with what was presented in the asynchronous lessons, with relevant topical examples and with the other texts read during the course. Besides serving as a basis for the classroom discussion of the Tuesday lesson, at the end of the entire course, two of these works will be evaluated for each group: one will be chosen by the group itself, the other will be drawn by the teacher among the remaining works (with the exception of the one of the first week, which will serve essentially as a "gym" for the following works)
- Thesis (40%): individual work (precise indications on the number of pages, etc., will be provided at the time of the assignment, at the end of the course) to be submitted at least 15 days in advance of the exam in which you intend to participate. The paper will focus on the sociologically oriented analysis of a personal situation of daily life, through the use of concepts examined during the course, referring to the essays and materials previously analyzed.
Modalità di verifica per non frequentanti (english version)
Non-attending students will be evaluated on the same syllabus as the attending students: the manuals and essays indicated in the bibliography, which will be assigned weekly and published - where allowed - on Moodle. The exam will consist of a two-part test. The first part will consist of a test composed of closed-ended questions, aimed at assessing the knowledge of the bibliographic material in the program. This part of the exam is to be considered preparatory to the continuation of the test: a negative evaluation, therefore, will result in failing the exam. The second part of the exam will consist of two open-ended questions to be completed in two hours. In the first one, students will be given a text to comment on. In the second, they will be asked to analyze an everyday life situation employing the concepts learned in the course. The final grade will be made up of 40% from the result of the written closed-ended question, 30% from the answer to the first open-ended question, and 30% from the answer to the second open-ended question.
SPS/08 - SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
De Benedittis Mario
Educational website(s)
Professor(s)
Reception:
Tuesday 14.30-16.30 and wednesday 14.30-15.30 by appointment via email
1st floor, room 1044 (Sesto)