Sociology of Communication
Code: 101137Credits: 6
| Degree programme | Type | Course |
|---|---|---|
| Sociology | OP | 4 |
Contact lecturer
- Name :
- Dafne Muntanyola Saura
- Email :
- dafne.muntanyola@uab.cat
Group languages
You can consult this information at the end of the document.
Prerequisites
A B1 level of English is recommended since the class involves reading, writing and speaking in English.
Objectives
The Sociology of Communication course combines various objectives, within the general aim of guiding students toward a critical and informed reflection on their everyday communicative reality.
On a theoretical level, a primary specific objective is to introduce students to the main communication theories, the origins of the discipline, and the schools of thought that have developed within sociology, from the classics to contemporary approaches. On the level of empirical analysis of communicative reality, the course examines the role and social logic of major media outlets and social networks, delving into how the digitalization process has transformed the way we work, consume, learn, and entertain ourselves. Thirdly, it explores the social construction of the institutions that shape the Catalan communication landscape. As a course with a significant applied component, a final specific objective is the development of a group-based intervention project linked to the local context, in the form of a Communication Plan for a real institution.
Ultimately, the introduction to communication theories is geared toward a subsequent empirical reflection on the social importance of both face-to-face and mediated communication, with particular emphasis on the role of informational algorithms, the monopolies of informational and cultural platforms, and the dominance of audiovisual content. All the knowledge acquired is applied in a practical communication management project.
Learning outcomes
- Students must be capable of assessing the quality of their own work.
- Effectively communicating the basic analysis of social phenomena in an elementary level of English.
- Students must be capable of managing their own time, planning their own study, managing the relationship with their tutor or adviser, as well as setting and meeting deadlines for a work project.
- Searching for documentary sources starting from concepts.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Developing self-learning strategies.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Defining the sociological concepts that interpret the cultural phenomena.
- Comparing the different theoretical approaches about culture.
- Relating the theoretical approaches with debates about social order and action.
- Explaining the social interpretations of culture according to these approaches.
- Expressing the debates regarding these approaches, that refer to culture.
- Relating the debates regarding these approaches, that refer to culture, with the historical context in which they emerged.
- Defining the underlying social phenomena of cultural policies and conflicts.
- Comparing the reading of cultural phenomena from several ideologies of the social reality of Spain and Catalonia.
- Relating the concepts, methods and techniques used to analyse culture with general theoretical and methodological debates.
- Distinguishing the sociological concepts, as well as the methods and techniques of social investigation commonly used to analyse culture.
- Distinguishing the sociological concepts about culture adopted by the actors involved in these policies and conflicts.
- Distinguishing the explanations of cultural inequalities between classes, between genders and between ethnic groups that these actors take for granted.
- Relating the explanations of cultural inequalities with general theoretical and methodological debates.
Contents
The course follows three main axes of critical analysis of communicative interactions:
1) Foundations and classical debates in communication,
2) Historical perspectives on communication as a sociological issue,
3) Contemporary approaches to digitalization in various fields of cultural, artistic, and academic production.
The first section shows the importance of everyday communication. A fundamental debate between McLuhan and Mumford is introduced regarding the role of the media, serving as a gateway to critical reflection on communication technologies. European and North American antecedents of communication theories are analyzed, focusing on concepts such as crowds, public opinion, and the social question. Classical schools such as the Chicago School and Mass Communication Research are reviewed and connected to current research on digital media, platforms, and social networks.
The second section includes approaches from Critical Theory and the commodification of communication within cultural materialism, as well as the communication of art. The review of Structuralism and semiotics provides tools to understand cultural communication. The Palo Alto School and its view of communication as a total phenomenon are also explored, including communicative multimodality. Cultural Studies and the social phenomenology of communicative events are addressed, along with communicative pragmatics, drawing from symbolic interactionism, labeling theory, and ethnomethodology.
The third section delves into network society and the digital community. Ethical and epistemological dilemmas related to generative artificial intelligence are addressed, opening the door to a contemporary and critical perspective on digital tools. Radical critiques of attention are also explored, alongside reflections on privacy, bias, and control in networks, with examples such as media manipulation and climate change narratives. Additional examples include the social construction of Sant Jordi and critical observation of the media in Catalonia. The section concludes with reflections on the fabrication of public opinion and an introduction to visual sociology.
Learning activities and methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group work derived from seminars | 13 | 0.52 | 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20 |
| Individualized review of the work portfolio | 8 | 0.32 | 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 |
| Formulation fo critical questions | 12 | 0.48 | 7, 8, 9, 10 |
| Presentation sessions on the subjects of the course | 19 | 0.76 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
| Seminary sessions | 13 | 0.52 | 3, 4, 5, 6, 13, 14 |
| Study and reading texts of course topics | 38 | 1.52 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 |
The course is developed through theoretical classes, with the support of some reference texts that are in the compulsory bibliography of the teaching guide. The theoretical classes will include discussions in the classroom, favoring a participatory dynamic from the start, but also with the aim of learning to use the conceptual system that will be derived from it. These classes will be complemented by a weekly seminar in which exercises and debates will be carried out of an applied nature to the student's most immediate reality. There will be short written exercises and oral presentations. Formal communicative correction will be highly valued.
Assessment
Continuous assessment activities
| Title | Weight | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4. Podcast production/video production | 20 | 15 | 0.6 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 19, 20 |
| 1. Carrying out a Communication Plan of an organization | 20 | 20 | 0.8 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, 20 |
| 3. Written exam on the theories of communication | 40 | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20 |
| 2. Critical questions & discussion about the readings | 20 | 10 | 0.4 | 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 16, 18 |
Continuous assessment is based on active participation in all class sessions, including discussions of individual questions on the required readings. These critical questions account for 20% of the final grade and allow for continuous monitoring of the learning process. Given the applied nature of the course, assessment also includes two practical components: the group development of a Communication Plan for a real institution, conceived as an intervention project linked to the local community (20%), and the production of an episode of the Buscaraons podcast or a video for the Faculty’s social media channels focused on science communication in the social sciences (20%). Finally, students will complete a final examination covering the required readings and class content, which will account for 40% of the final grade. To ensure the successful completion of the Communication Plan and the podcast/video project, dedicated supervision sessions will be held during class.
The use of mobile phones, laptops with internet access, tablets, or any other electronic devices in the classroom is not permitted unless required for a specific course activity. Handwritten note-taking is cognitively more effective for learning, promotes active attention, and supports one of the course’s central themes: attentive engagement.
To qualify for continuous assessment, students must submit all required assessment components. In addition, students must obtain a minimum grade of 4 out of 10 in the other assessment activities in order to sit the final examination. Resit assessment is available only to students who have followed the assessment process but have failed to pass the course based on their final grade.
Any irregularity in an assessment activity—including academic fraud, plagiarism, or the improper use of artificial intelligence tools, unless such use has been explicitly authorized in the course guide—that may result in a significant alteration of the grade will lead to that activity being awarded a mark of 0. If the course guide establishes a minimum grade requirement for a specific assessment component in order to pass the course, or if multiple irregularities are detected across different assessment activities within the same course, the final course grade will be 0. In addition to these academic consequences, the University may initiate disciplinary proceedings against students who engage in such misconduct. Furthermore, the teaching staff reserves the right to conduct oral interviews or alternative assessments in order to verify the actual acquisition of knowledge and competencies, as well as the validity and authorship of the work submitted by students.
Whenever artificial intelligence tools are used, students must clearly indicate which parts of their work were generated or assisted by such tools, specify the tools employed, and include a critical reflection on how these tools influenced both the working process and the final outcome. A lack of transparency regarding the use of AI will be considered a breach of academic integrity.
Students opting for the single-assessment system must inform the instructor within the deadlines established by the University and submit the critical questions (20%) and the Communication Plan (20%) on the day of the examination. In this case, the examination will be longer in order to compensate for the podcast/video assignment and will account for 60% of the final grade.
Non-assessable students
Students who fail to provide sufficient assessment evidence will be recorded as “not assessable” in the official grade report. This category applies to students who do not submit the required course assignments by the established deadlines.
Bibliography
Adorno, Theodor. (1951). Freudian Theory and the Pattern pf Facist Propaganda. The Culture Industry. Abingdon: Routledge.
Airoldi, Massimo. (2022). The Machine Habitus. Towards a Sociology of Algoritthms. Polity Press.
Barthes, Roland. (1980). La chambre claire. Paris: Gallimard.
Bauer, M.W., & Schiele, B. (Eds.). (2024). AI and Common Sense: Ambitions and Frictions London: Routledge.
Bavelas, Janette. B. (2021). Pragmatics of Human Communication 50 Years Later. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 40(2), 3–25.
Bell, Julia. (2021). Atención radical. Barcelona: Alpha Decay.
Benjamin, Walter. (1936/2021). L’obra d'art en l'època de la reproductibilitat tècnica. Barcelona: Edicions de la L Geminada.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1973), L’opinion publique n’existe pas. Les temps modernes, 318: 1292-1309.
Bruns, Axel. (2019). Are Filter Bubbles Real? Polity Press.
Castells, Manuel. (2002). La galàxia internet. Barcelona: La Rosa dels Vents.
Cheney-Lippold, John. (2017). We Are Data : Algorithms and the Making of Our Digital Selves. New York University Press.
Couldry, Nick, & Hepp, Andreas. (2018). The mediated construction of reality. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Crawford, Kate. (2023) Atlas of AI. Yale University Press.
De Feo, Antonietta. (2025). Interferenze artiviste nel capitalismo della sorveglianza. Il caso di Mycelium Connessioniremote.Artivismo_Teatro_Tecnologia, 10, 1-24. https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/connessioniremote/issue/view/2750/876
Eco, Umberto. (1968/2006). Apocalípticos e integrados. Barcelona: Tusquets.
Emerson, Joan P. (1970) Behavior in Private Places. O’Brien, J. The Production of Reality. London: SAGE.
Farkas, Johan, & Maloney, Marcus (Eds.). (2024). Digital media metaphors: A critical introduction. London: Routledge.
Floridi, Luciano. (2023). The ethics of artificial intelligence: Principles, challenges, and opportunities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Freud, Sigmund. (1921). Group psychology and the analysis of the ego. London: Penguin.
Fuchs, Christian. (2024). Social media: A critical introduction (4th ed.). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Gillespie, Tarleton. (2018). Custodians of the internet: Platforms, content moderation, and the hidden decisions that shape social media. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Han, Byung-Chul. (2023). La crisi de la narració. Barcelona: Herder.
Hao, K. (2025). Empire of AI : dreams and nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Penguin Press.
Hofstader, Douglas. 82007). I am a Strange Loop. New York: Basic Books.
Lakoff, George & Narayanan, Siri (2025). The Neural Mind. Chicago University Press.
Levi, Simona. (Ed.). (2019). #fakeyou. Barcelona: Raig Verd.
Levi, Simona. (2024). Digitalización democrática: Soberanía digital para las personas. Barcelona: Rayo Verde Editorial.
López Borrull, Alexandre. (2020). Bulos científicos. Madrid: Anaya.
Mattelart, Armand & Mattelart, Michèle (1997). Los Empirismos del Nuevo Mundo en Historia de las teorias de la comunicación. Barcelona: Paidós.
MacLuhan, Marshal & Fiore, Quentin. (1967). The Medium is the Massage. An Inventory of Effects. New York: Bantam Books.
Morris,. William (1993). News from Nowhere and Other Writings. London: Penguin Books.
Mozorov, Eugene. (2019). Capitalism’s New Clothes, The Baffler, February 2019. https://thebaffler.com/latest/capitalisms-new-clothes-morozov
Mumford, Lewis (2003). Philosophy of technology : the technological condition : an anthology. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons.
Muntanyola Saura, Dafne. (2014). Metodología(s): Perspectivas, prácticas y desafíos. Encrucijadas: Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 8, 18-56.
Narayanan, Arvind & Sayash Kapoor (2024). AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference. Princeton University Press.
O’Brien, Jodi. (2017). The production of reality: Essays and readings on social interaction (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE,
Park, Robert. (1938). “Reflections on Communications and culture”. American Journal of Sociology, XLIV, The University of Chicago Press, 187-205.
Postman, Neil. (1990). Divertim nos fins a morir. Barcelona: La Campana.(Amusing Ourselves to Death.Nova York, Viking Penguin, 1985)
Ramonet, Ignacio (1999). Geopolítica i comunicació del final del mil·leni. Fundació Caixa Sabadell.
Rius Ulldemolins, Quim, & Pecourt, Juan. (2021). Digitalización de la sociedad, creatividad y nuevas prácticas culturales. La sociología de la cultura en la era digital. Valencia: Universitat de València (PUV).
Sawyer, R. Keith, and Danah Henriksen (2023), Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, 3rd edn New York,Oxford Academic, https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197747537.001.0001,
Wajcman, Judy. (2016). Time in the digital age. Barcelona: CCCB.
Werner, Ann. (2020) Organizing music, organizing gender: algorithmic culture and Spotify recommendations, Popular Communication, 18:1, 78-90.
Wiener, Anna.(2020). Uncanny Valley. London: 4th State.
Zuboff, Shoshana. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. London, England: Profile Books.
Recommended reading for a sociological view of communication:
Fuchs, Christian. (2024). Social media: A critical introduction (4th ed.). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
And for a brief history of communication:
Mattelart, Armand i Mattelart, Michèle. (1997) Historia de las teorías de la comunicación. Barcelona: Paidós.
On media:
Berrio, Jordi. (1990). L’opinió pública i la democràcia. Barcelona: Pòrtic.
Bourdieu, Pierre. (1997). Sobre la televisió. Barcelona: Edicions 62.
Boyd, Danah. (2015). It’s complicated. The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press.
Cardús i Ros, Salvador. (1995). Política de paper. Premsa i poder, 1981-1992. Barcelona: La Campana.
Castells, Manuel. (2002). La galàxia Internet. Reflexions sobre Internet, empresa i societat. Barcelona: Rosa dels Vents.
Castells, Manuel. (2003). L’era de la informació: Economia, societat i cultura (3 volums). Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya. (Ed. original: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. New Jersey: Blackwell).
Champagne, Patrick. (s.d.). Faire l’opinion. París: Seuil.
Chomsky, Noam. (1992). Las ilusiones necesarias. Madrid: Libertarias/Prodhufi.
Katz, Jon. (1997). Virtuous reality. Nova York: Random House.
Lacroix, Michel. (2005). El culte a l’emoció. Atrapats en un món d’emocions sense sentiments. Barcelona: Edicions La Campana.
Lippmann, Walter. (1932). Public opinion. Londres: Allen & Unwin.
Saperas, Enric. (1992). Introducció a les teories de la comunicació. Barcelona: Pòrtic.
Weber, Max. (1992). Para una sociología de la prensa. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas (REIS), (57), 251–259.
Wihbey, John P. (2019). The social fact: News & knowledge in a networked world. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Journals:
Visual Studies
Yearbook of Moving Images Studies
Journal of Visual Culture
Visual Methodologies
Magazines
Trípodos
Anàlisis
Capçalera
Comunicació21.
Treballs de Comunicació. Societat Catalana de Comunicació (IEC)
Webs
CAC (Consell de l'Audiovisual de Catalunya)
www.fair.org
www.medialens.org
Media.cat ObservatoriCrític dels Mitjans
Reuters Institute
https://fcic.periodistes.cat
http://incom.uab.cat
www.portalcomunicacio.com
www.aulamedia.org
Software
Any word processor
Course groups and languages
The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE
| Type of teaching | Group | Language | Semester | Shift |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 51 | English | second semester | afternoon |
| (PAUL) Classroom practices | 51 | English | second semester | afternoon |