Journalism and Communication Offices (20501)
Degree/study:Bachelor's Degree of Advertising and Public Relations
Year: fourth
Term: first
Number of ECTS credits: 5 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 125 hours
Teaching language or languages: catalán
Teaching Staff: Ferran Lalueza
1. Presentation of the subject
Journalism and Communication Offices is an obligatory course in the syllabus of the Bachelor's Degree of Advertising and Public Relations. It focuses on the study of journalism in offices as a basic tool of public relations. The relationship between companies or institutions and media, the involved agents and the roles they take are the main issues under study.
Through this course, students will delve into journalistic culture and its production routines, organization practices and ethical references. Journalists are a crucial audience for corporate communication professionals, and this course intends to approach students to their way of being and working. The purpose is to maximize the efficiency of the public relations tools addressed to the media.
Consequently, the capacity to influence the media agenda on the basis of a deep knowledge of its practices is the main competence students must acquire in order to pass the course. The transformations that the information and communication technologies in general and, more particularly, the social media are causing on the media ecosystem will also be especially emphasized.
2. Competences to be attained
The following cross competences are linked to this course:
§ Capacity for autonomous working.
§ Capacity for cooperative working and group debating issues related to the course contents.
§ Capacity for critical/self-critical analysis.
§ Capacity for oral and written communication.
§ Capacity for active listening.
§ Capacity for time planning and management.
As also are the following specific competences:
§ Capacity for influencing the media contents by participating in the media agenda setting.
§ Knowledge of the professional roles, productive routines, organization practices and ethical references that shape journalistic culture.
§ Capacity for understanding the impact Internet and the social media are having in the media ecosystem.
§ Capacity for creating and editing journalistic contents in a multiplatform environment.
§ Capacity for strategically applying public relations techniques specifically addressed to the media.
3. Contents
Unit 1: Journalism and public relations
1.1. ¿Synergy or unauthorized practice?
1.2. Strategic objectives.
Unit 2: Journalistic activity
2.1. Media ecosystem.
2.2. Agenda-setting.
2.3. Newsworthiness criteria.
2.4. Styles, genres and formats.
Unit 3: Journalistic ethics
3.1. Deontological codes.
3.2. Mistakes and due diligence.
3.3. Manipulation and pseudo-journalism.
Unit 4: Internet impact
4.1. Conventional media and social media.
4.2. Democratization of the communication system.
4.3. Blogging, microblogging and microjournalism.
Unit 5: Spokespersons training.
5.1. Knowledge.
5.2. Skills.
Unit 6: Specific techniques
6.1. Announcements, events and pseudo-events.
6.2. Notes and press releases.
6.3. Press kits.
6.4. Press conferences.
6.5. Interviews.
6.6. Virtual press rooms.
6.7. Advertising reports.
6.8. Others.
4. Assessment
The assessment will be continuous over the term. As well, students must take a final exam to prove they have acquired the competences linked to the course. The successful execution of additional exercises could substitute the final exam or, at least, increase the obtained grade.
During the continuous assessment (50% of the grade), the professor will take into account the different assessed exercises he will propose and the final project, as well as active participation in class debates and in the rest of activities aimed at the collective knowledge construction.
The final exam (50% of the grade) will include theoretical questions (knowledge), practical exercises (skills) and questions requiring a personal reflection (attitudes).
5. Bibliography and teaching resources
5.1. Basic bibliography
§ Bland, M.; Theaker, A.; Wragg, D. (2000) Effective media relations. London: Kogan Page.
§ Burgueño, J. M. (2009). Los renglones torcidos del periodismo. Mentiras, errores y engaños en el oficio de informar. Barcelona: UOCpress.
§ Cabrera, M. A. (coord.) (2011). Evolución tecnológica y cibermedios. Sevilla: Comunicación Social.
§ Del Río Martínez, R. (2008). Manual para comunicar bien. ¿Vas a publicar lo que te he enviado? Santander: Gonpat.
§ García Orosa, B. (2009). Gabinetes de comunicación on line: claves para generar información corporativa en la red. Sevilla; Zamora: Comunicación Social.
§ Hernández Robledo, M. Á.; Macías Castillo, A. (coords). (2009). Comunicación corporativa. Las relaciones con los medios de comunicación. Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia.
§ Lalueza, F. (2011). "Sin mediar los medios. ¿Se desmarcan las relaciones públicas de la función de gabinete de prensa?", a Life without media, pàg. 341-349. Barcelona: Universitat Ramon Llull.
§ Palau, G. (2003). Gabinets de comunicació. Periodistes a l'altra banda. Barcelona: Pòrtic.
§ Pérez Latre, F. J. (2007). Darse a conocer. La empresa ante los medios de comunicación. CIE Dossat: Madrid.
§ Xifra, J.; Lalueza, F. (2009). Casos de relaciones públicas y comunicación corporativa. Madrid: Pearson Educación.
§ Xifra, J. (2011). Manual de relaciones públicas e institucionales. Madrid: Tecnos.
On Aula Global students will find links to other resources, particularly online ones.
6. Metodology
Collective knowledge construction is the course reference pedagogical model. Therefore, students are encouraged to have a very active participation in every session, even in master classes aimed at dealing with the more theoretical and conceptual part. Participation and active listening will be specially important in the working sessions adopting a debate format on the basis of the analysis and reflection on proposed ad hoc contents.
Attendance of guests, particularly representatives of the journalism world who can explain their experience with public relations professionals, will also be encouraged. These guests will then start a press conference in which students will take the role of reporters to receive the information that will later allow them to generate journalistic contents.
Attitude competences will be taken into account in all the face-to-face activities developed in the classroom, along with knowledge and skills competences.
7. Planning of activities
The specific dates to develop the different activities integrating the continuous assessment will be made known on Aula Global. Instructions for the final project and the pertinent presentation date will be told at the beginning of the term. The rest of the activities will be progressively programmed and announced to reproduce -in part- the journalistic typical working conditions with tight deadlines.