83418 - Public Communication And Service Marketing

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide theoretical and practical tools to address the study of the relevant communication dynamics related to the design and implementation of public communication initiatives or plans: political, social and administrative one.
At the end of the course students get useful theoretical skills for analyzing processes and cultural factors that influence the construction of communication themes and the behavior of social actors; they learn the theories and techniques for the development of a communication which is oriented to participation and the involvement of citizens in modern democracy processes; finally, they acquire methodological tools useful for the communication and marketing actions planning on collective topics or public services, with particular reference to local public agencies, third sector players, corporate social responsibility and the cause-related marketing.

Course contents

The course will primarily illustrates the development of public communication in Italy and the recent digital turn of the Italian Public Administration (PA). The development of the Internet and the so-called "social web", indeed, is inevitably revolutionizing timing, models and the praxis of the public communication also in our Country.

According to the the new and complex dynamics of the contemporary Age, also in this pathway technological, normative and communicative dimensions are intertwined, impacting on both, the practices and the routines of the PA, as well as on the interaction and the relationship with citizens-users.
These latter have to be mostly considered nowadays “networked citizens”, that is connected citizens who are active within specific civic frameworks, using the web and the social media to interacting with the PA.
Digital media becomes public spaces and communicative contexts in which public organizations and the citizens are (re)connected and can have a confrontation due to co-implement services and to can heard their voice, triggering sharing knowledge, conversational exchange, mobilization and civic collaboration.
Thus, illustrating the nature and the extension of this change, the course wants to drive students in the full comprehension of the potentialities, but also the limits or obstacles about the upcoming "networked citizenship", widening their gaze toward the complex administrative and participative "infrastructure" that allows - beyond every rhetoric about innovation - digital technology to be concretely "enabling".

Readings/Bibliography

The following mandatory texts are adopted for both attending and non-attending students:


- Lovari A., Ducci G. (2022). Comunicazione pubblica. Istituzioni, pratiche, piattaforme. Mondadori, Milano.

- Allegrini G., Spillare S. (2021). Public communication and the role of social media in enhancing democratic innovation: the case of the City of Bologna. "Sociology of Communication", 61, pp. 109-126.

- Allegrini G., Spillare S. (2022). Innovazione democratica, social media e co-creazione di senso: il caso del Bilancio Partecipativo del Comune di Bologna. In: Paltrinieri R., Spillare S., Tardivo G. (ed.). Orizzonti Medi-terranei. Comunicazione, istituzioni e prospettive mediatiche in un confronto tra Italia e Spagna, Franco Angeli, Milan, pp. 33-51.


In the list below, attending students find further texts for in-depth study. Non-attending students have to choose at least two texts from the list as mandatory added materials for the exam (international students can ask for English versions):


- Sorice M. (2021). artecipazione disconnessa. Innovazione democratica e illusione digitale al tempo del neoliberismo. Carocci, Roma (cap. 1.2, 1.3, 1.4; 2.4, 2.5; cap. 3; cap. 4 all).

- Bartoletti R., Faccioli F. (2015) (ed.). Comunicazione e civic engagement. Media, spazi pubblici e nuovi processi di partecipazione. Franco Angeli, Milano (just one contribution of your choice).

- Paltrinieri R., Allegrini G. (2020). Partecipazione, processi di immaginazione civica e sfera pubblica, Franco Angeli, Milano (Cap. 2).

- Lovari A., Righetti N. (2020). La comunicazione pubblica della salute tra infodemia e fake news: il ruolo della pagina Facebook del Ministero della Salute nella sfida social al Covid-19. Mediascapes Journal 15/2020, pp. 156-173.

- Ducci G., Lovari A. (2022). L’evoluzione della cultura della comunicazione pubblica in Italia. In: Paltrinieri R., Spillare S., Tardivo G. (ed.). Orizzonti Medi-terranei. Comunicazione, istituzioni e prospettive mediatiche in un confronto tra Italia e Spagna, Franco Angeli, Milano, pp. 17-32.

Teaching methods

The course mainly includes frontal lessons and group workshops/discussions related to the analysis of case studies, good practices, etc. in order to stimulate analytical and evaluative thinking, the empirical method and the critical approach.

Seminars and speeches by experts or representative witnesses may be also provided.

At the end of the course, the students will possess the theoretical frames and the operational tools to analyze, evaluate, structure and implement the communication of public and non-public bodies, with particular attention to stimulating and accompanying the processes of participation and co-creation of value.

Assessment methods

The exams will be oral, and they will be held during the scheduled sessions at the end of the course.

For attending students, however, a non-mandatory mid-term test is foreseen before the end of the course, as well as the realization of a written paper (individual or in group) concerning a theme in line with the contents of the system and usually proposed by the teacher.

Attending students who have passed the mid-term test and submitted the paper will thus be able to register the achieved result by registering themselves during the first available exam session (registration will be valid as acceptance of the result). Alternatively, each student can freely refuse the grade (sending an e-mail to the teacher) and retry the exam in complete and oral form during one of the scheduled sessions.

Non-attending students or those who have not passed the intermediate test with a sufficient evaluation must take the oral exam during the official sessions again.

Regarding evaluation methods and criteria, the student's ability to naturally move within the sources and identify useful information that allows them to illustrate the discipline's main aspects and areas adequately will be specially considered. Specifically, the criteria adopted for the assessment of learning are adequate knowledge of the exam programme; ability to independently develop associated arguments; ability to describe and illustrate phenomena, institutional processes, micro and macro dynamics; capacity for empirical collocation of theoretical generalizations; ability to face a sociological reflection on the areas of public communication and services, adequate vocabulary.

The exam is considered passed only when all the requirements have been met.

Teaching tools

Video projector, PC, powerpoint slides, articles and documents not included in the course program but relevant for the topics covered by the classes.

Links to further information

https://iol.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=45353

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Spillare