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

For attending and non attending students:

• Ducci, G. (2017). Relazionalità consapevole. La comunicazione pubblica nella società connessa. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
• Ducci G., Lovari A. (2022). L’evoluzione della cultura della comunicazione pubblica in Italia. In: Paltrinieri R., Spillare S., Tardivo G. (a cura di). Orizzonti Medi-terranei. Comunicazione, istituzioni e prospettive mediatiche in un confronto tra Italia e Spagna, Franco Angeli, Milano, pp. 17-32.
• Paltrinieri R., Allegrini G. (2015). Partecipazione, processi di immaginazione civica e sfera pubblica, Franco Angeli, Milano (Cap. 2 e 3).
• 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. (a cura di). Orizzonti Medi-terranei. Comunicazione, istituzioni e prospettive mediatiche in un confronto tra Italia e Spagna, Franco Angeli, Milano, pp. 33-51.
• Allegrini G., Spillare S. (2021). Public communication and the role of social media in enhancing democratic innovation:
  the case of the City of Bologna. Sociologia della Comunicazione, 61, pp. 109-126.

Non attending students will need to integrate with a contribute among the following:

• Bartoletti R., Faccioli F. (2015) (a cura di), Comunicazione e civic engagement. Media, spazi pubblici e nuovi processi di partecipazione, Franco Angeli, Milano (a contribution of your choice).
• 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.

N.B. Foreigners students who could have some difficulties with the Italian language may opt for alternative English books that have to be seattled with the teacher.

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

Verification of learning may consist of a partial test at the end of the course which will focus exclusively on Ducci's monograph, to which will be added the preparation of a written paper on a topic proposed in class by the teacher and inherent to the areas of the course. The positive outcome of the partial test and the paper will conclude the exam for attending students.

The latter will thus be able to record the achieved result by registering for the next session (first winter session) and without the necessary physical presence (the registration procedure will be considered as acceptance of the result of the tests).

If the student, on the other hand, should refuse the vote (avoiding enrolling in the first available minutes), he will always be able to retake the exam in full and in oral form in the normal scheduled sessions.

Non-attending students or those who have not passed the written test and the partial test with a sufficient assessment, are required to undergo an oral interview with the teacher during the official sessions.

With regard to methods and evaluation criteria, the student's ability that will be taken into consideration will be, especially, the ability to search and identify sources and bibliographic material in order to be able to identify the most useful information that allows him to illustrate the specific aspects and areas of the discipline. Specifically, the criteria adopted for the assessment of learning are the following: knowledge of the exam program; ability to develop autonomous argumentation; ability to describe and illustrate phenomena, institutional processes, micro, and macro dynamics; capacity for empirical collocation of theoretical generalizations; ability to deal with a sociological discussion on public communication and services.

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