Sociology of communication

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

Most sessions will consist of the lecturer's lectures based on powerpoint presentations, seeking students to discuss the slides in the presentation. In addition, different visual and documental study materials such as photographs, documentaries, films and news will be shown, whenever appropriate.

Learning Outcomes

The course unit the origins and development of Sociology of Communication in its proximity to some central nuclei of sociological theory. Based on the rise of the mass media in the early twentieth century, we follow some lines of thought and schools that provided the basis for the study of communication and the subsequent study of the media and their forms of interaction.

Thus, it seeks to provide students with a global and historical view of the sociological approach to the media and communication so that they can: recognize various dimensions of communication and the media, differentiating mainly their social aspects; understand the main implications of media culture and its influences in the social field; deconstruct the naturalization of the communication phenomenon in everyday experience; get to know some of the main foundations of the thought on communication.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Introduction: from theory, to sociology, to the sociology of communication

2. The first sociological theories on the construction of meaning in the social world:

  - The ideas of Karl Marx and Max Weber

- A pioneering sociologist: Harriet Martineau

3. The modern world of industrialized newspapers: the American press of the early 20th century

4. Modern communication in the thinking of:

 - Charles Horton Cooley, John Dewey and Robert E. Park

5. Research on communication with empirical analysis of advertising

- Lippman’s view of public opinion and the press

- Lasswell's model

 - Paul Lazarsfeld and mass communication research

6. Technology and society: Marshall McLuhan's sociology of the medium.

Head Lecturer(s)

Tiago Estêvão Martins

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam: 100.0%

Bibliography

Bibliografia geral:

Esteves, J. P. (2011). Sociologia da Comunicação. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

Esteves, J. P. (org.) (2002). Comunicação e sociedade. Lisboa: Livros Horizonte.

McQuail, D. (2003 [1983]). A Teoria da Comunicação de Massas. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

Rieffel, R. (2003). Sociologia dos Média. Porto: Porto Editora.

Rogers,  E.  (1994) . A  History  of  Communication  Study.  A  Biographical  Approach.  Nova Iorque  &  Toronto:  The  Free  Press.

 

Bibliografia específica:

A fornecer para cada sessão individual.