ΕΝΔ513: Contemporary Approaches to Communication and Journalism

Aim of this module is to acquaint students with fundamental concepts, definitions, theories and debates about the contemporary field of communication and information, which are of critical important for both our private and most importantly our public lives. More specifically, the module ΕΝΔ513 aims at helping future professionals of communication and journalism become aware of their latent theories, modify them where needed and become reflective and critical practitioners in the communication arena. The module combines scientific sources from the fields of Communication and Media Theory, the Theory of News Framing/Frames, Storytelling, Media Effects, and the Sociology of New Media, as well as sources relevant to broader epistemological and methodological approaches, and aims to ground strategic thought in classical and contemporary theories, while it also provides functional knowledge for their application as much on the level of analysis, as on the level of design and implementation of applied communication techniques.

Six critical areas of scholarly inquiry and critical debate have been selected to make up this module, and they all reflect the intersection between the field of Communication and the field of Journalism. Communication (conceptualized in terms of its public character) has its own applied areas, which have as a rule economic and business rationality, closely related to the more general field of the Market. To what extent, does the Market and the field of Applied Communication put pressure on contemporary Journalism? What are the mechanisms that require frames to be used as powerful vehicles of meaning-making and reality-construction? How is the public narrative articulated in the context of digital communication, and what critical role does the context of digital media play in the function and the very nature of Journalism? What kind of media and news effects can we observe today and how can we conceptualize them? What are the challenges posed by New Media that directly affect the structure of Journalism and the way it is being practiced? The critical examination and analysis such key questions constitute the six Topics that comprise this module.

With the use of printed and electronic material, new media and social networking, in the Module offered in the 1st year of study the following subjects are developed:

1. The Grammar of Communication and Information: Central Mechanisms and Fundamental Procedures in the Functioning of Modern Media

2. “The function of frames in Communication and Journalism”
3. New Public Discourse and Storytelling in Journalism and Communication

4. Social media, communication and new Journalism: threat or synergy?

5. Journalistic Ethics and Ethics in the Digital Age

6. Modern technological challenges in the field of Communication and Journalism.

Τhe module focuses on:

• Acquainting students with the major research fields in Communication, Journalism and the function of Media, such as agenda-setting, frame-building, public opinion, media effects and the construction of reality.
• Examining the intersections between different social agents and factors within the fields of Communication and Journalism
• Contrasting and comparing and co-examining traditional and new media forms, processes and theories
• Illustrating the multifarious dynamics (technological, professional, social, and economic) that shape the contemporary ecosystem of information and communication