75408 - Communication Sociology (10 Cfus)

Learning outcomes

Students learn basic tools to analyze the different forms and the several channels of contemporary communication (interpersonal and face-to-face communication, media communication, web and social media).

Course contents

- Social theories and models of communication
- Communication and interaction in the everyday life: interpersonal, mediated and social media communication
- Social forms of communication and technological developments: from oral societies to digital societies
- Media, new media and interaction
- Case and empirical analysis of the different forms of contemporary communication (mainly in the second part of the 10 ECTS course)

Readings/Bibliography

1. E. Goffman, "Interaction Order ", in American Sociological Review, vol. 48, 1983, pp. 1-17: JSTOR address)
2. S. Moscovici, Notes towards a description of Social Representations, "European Journal of Social Psychology", 18 (3), 1988, pp. 211-250)
3. A. Schütz, "The well informed citizen. An Essay on the Social Distribution of Knowledge", in Social Research 13, 4 (1946), pp. 463-78
4. J. B. Thompson, La nascita dell'interazione mediata in Id., Mezzi di comunicazione e modernità, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1998, cap. 3, pp. 121-168 (English original version: The Media and the Modernity, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1995, chapt. 3)
   (for French speakers: J. B. Thompson, "La nouvelle visibilité ", in Réseaux, 2005/1 (n° 129-130), pp. 59-87)
5. P. Lalli, When Communication Goes with Inclusion: A Case Analysis on Participatory Experiences in the Municipality of Bologna , in Communication with the Public, edited by A. Jenei, Budapest, AdLibrum, 2012, pp. 142-160
6. S. Livingstone and E.J. Helsper, "Gradations in digital inclusion: Children, young people and the digital divide", in "New Media & Society", 9, pp. 671-696
7. At least 2 chapters from:D. Boyd, It's Complicated, Foundation Philip Hamilton McMillan of the class of 1894, Yale College, Creative Commons

6 ECTS:

• Above listed readings from 1 to 4.

 

Teaching methods

Lessons and interactive discussions in class. In the second part of the 10 ECTS course: some empirical case analysis, also with professional experts.

Assessment methods

Written exam with closed and open-ended questions on the suggested readings (foreign students can also write for answering in one of the following languages: English, French, Spanish).

Erasmus+ and exchange students who have the 6 CFU course can attend the first lesson of the second part, when the teacher will introduce the optional alternative of a written paper.
In fact, in the first lesson of the second part of the 10 ECTS course the attending Erasmus students or other attending foreign students can agree with the teacher some specific alternatives (i.e. written English or French or Spanish papers on case empirical analysis coming from the lectures and the readings: v. instruction - in Italian - in the specific section of the teacher's website "Contenuti utili").

Erasmus+ and exchange students who have the 6 CFU course can attend the first lesson of the second part, when the teacher will introduce the optional alternative of a written paper.  

Teaching tools

Slides and video

Office hours

See the website of Pina Lalli