Advertising Communication
A.Y. 2023/2024
Learning objectives
This course is about advertisements and their producers: what happens behind the scenes to create them, how they are deployed, and what they tell us about the social groups constructing and consuming them. By drawing on a wide range of studies and disciplines, the course surveys the history of advertising, focusing primarily though not exclusively on the United States, and investigates the changing strategies that have been used by advertisers from the 19th to the 21st centuries. It does so by approaching advertisements as texts that can be understood through semiotic analysis and the advertising industry as a relatively autonomous social field whose structure and dynamics can be looked at through a sociological lens. The course will provide a cultural approach to the study of advertising and its history as a means to understand advertising and branding as central components in capitalist economies and indicators of cultural attitudes and ideologies. It will also examine how advertising texts and producers represent various social identities: gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion and more. The latter section of the course investigates what kind of impact advertising has in shaping social trends, style and changing consumer practices.
Expected learning outcomes
After completing this course, students will learn to:
- Describe how an advertising agency works.
- Evaluate and critically interpret advertisements both in terms of their construction and their societal impact.
- Analyze and discuss the advertising process through a sociological lens.
- Formulate research questions about how advertisements are made.
- Develop a method to collect, import into a data set and statistically manipulate primary data for testing hypotheses about the relationship between advertising and society.
- Describe how an advertising agency works.
- Evaluate and critically interpret advertisements both in terms of their construction and their societal impact.
- Analyze and discuss the advertising process through a sociological lens.
- Formulate research questions about how advertisements are made.
- Develop a method to collect, import into a data set and statistically manipulate primary data for testing hypotheses about the relationship between advertising and society.
Lesson period: First trimester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First trimester
Course syllabus
This course introduces students to the scientific analysis of advertising. Students will learn how to analyze and interpret advertisements and the role advertising plays in society, culture, and the economy. The course will begin by exploring the historical and social contexts in which advertising has evolved and exists today as a central aspect of capitalist economy and consumer society. This will involve looking at social structures, economic conditions, media institutions, and governmental regulations. The course will then examine the creation of advertising content. On the one hand, by identifying the internal rules and structuring principles which underlie advertising messages and enable them to be meaningful. On the other hand, by describing the various networks of organizations and professionals that collaborate to bring advertisements to life as well as the motivations and interests that drive those different agents. Throughout this section, the students will become familiar with and learn to apply a variety of theoretical tools from different disciplines. Finally, the course will examine the ways in which advertising is enlisted in processes of cultural representation and identity construction, by considering the place of advertisements in society, and the place of society in advertisements. To this end, students will learn how to collect, organize, and analyze data using SPSS statistical software, and interpret findings to address advertising research problems.
Prerequisites for admission
Highly recommended prerequisites for this course are B62-77 Research Design and B62-78 Data Analysis. A comfort level with sociological thinking and a working knowledge of the statistical
techniques most commonly used in the social sciences will help. A good dose of curiosity and open-mindedness are recommended.
techniques most commonly used in the social sciences will help. A good dose of curiosity and open-mindedness are recommended.
Teaching methods
Lectures, group presentations, and assignments.
Teaching Resources
The attending students will be tested on a selection of chapters from the following book: Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace, by William Leiss, Stephen Kline, Sut Jhally, Jackie Botterill and Kyle Asquith, Routledge, 2018, 4th edition. Other reading material for consultation will be made available to the students who will regularly attend the course.
The non-attending students will be tested on the following books: (1.) Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace, by William Leiss, Stephen Kline, Sut Jhally, Jackie Botterill and Kyle Asquith, Routledge, 2018, 4th edition; (2.) Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age, by Mara Einstein, Routledge, 2008. Note: all chapters of these books need to be studied for passing the exam.
The non-attending students will be tested on the following books: (1.) Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace, by William Leiss, Stephen Kline, Sut Jhally, Jackie Botterill and Kyle Asquith, Routledge, 2018, 4th edition; (2.) Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age, by Mara Einstein, Routledge, 2008. Note: all chapters of these books need to be studied for passing the exam.
Assessment methods and Criteria
For the attending students, there will be a final paper for this class in addition to a written final exam. Details on the final paper will be distributed in class at the beginning of the course. Prior to the due date of the paper, attending students will have the possibility to present on their final paper projects. This will provide an opportunity for students to receive feedback from the instructor and their peers about the projects. Other in-class activities, such as group reading presentations and active participation to in-class discussions, will supplement the evaluation of the attending students by allowing them to add points on their final grades. The written final exam will include 5 to 6 open questions covering a selection of chapters of Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace, by William Leiss, Stephen Kline, Sut Jhally, Jackie Botterill and Kyle Asquith (Routledge, 2018). The selected chapters will be communicated in class at the beginning of the course.
For the non-attending students, there will be a final exam with open questions covering all the chapters of the two following books: (1.) Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace, by William Leiss, Stephen Kline, Sut Jhally, Jackie Botterill and Kyle Asquith, Routledge, 2018, 4th edition; (2.) Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age, by Mara Einstein, Routledge, 2008.
For the non-attending students, there will be a final exam with open questions covering all the chapters of the two following books: (1.) Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace, by William Leiss, Stephen Kline, Sut Jhally, Jackie Botterill and Kyle Asquith, Routledge, 2018, 4th edition; (2.) Brands of Faith: Marketing Religion in a Commercial Age, by Mara Einstein, Routledge, 2008.
SPS/08 - SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
Nardella Carlo
Educational website(s)
Professor(s)
Reception:
Thursday 9:00-12:00 (send an email to book an appointment)
Office or MS Teams