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Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title Applying Communication Theory
Module Code CM382 (ITS) / MCO1035 (Banner)
Faculty Humanities & Social Sciences School Communications
Module Co-ordinatorNeil O'Boyle
Module Teachers-
NFQ level 8 Credit Rating 10
Pre-requisite Not Available
Co-requisite Not Available
Compatibles Not Available
Incompatibles Not Available
None
Array
Description

This module introduces final year undergraduates to selected tenets of communication theory with a particular emphasis on how theories can be used as tools to interpret human and mediated communication. Student activities will include in-class debates, essays and seminar presentations. In addition to exploring theories of human communication in interpersonal interactions, relationships and groups, the module also examines theories of mediated communication (analogue and digital). Overall, the module critically reviews the conceptual foundations and dominant assumptions informing studies across the interdisciplinary field of communications. It retraces some of the threads that underlie contemporary scholarly approaches to the institutions, forms, patterns and styles through which communication takes place in the contemporary world.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand and describe the philosophical underpinnings of communication theory
2. Describe and differentiate human communication in various contexts
3. Explain how media function within the overall evolution of human symbolic power as both instruments of social control/order and as agents of change
4. Explain how different historical situations shape the use of different technologies to disseminate knowledge about society
5. Research and write theoretically-informed assignments and seminar reports



Workload Full-time hours per semester
Type Hours Description
Lecture25Weekly class contact
Assignment Completion30Seminar assignment
Independent Study90General research and reading
Assignment Completion65Essay (including library time)
Online activity40Use of course-related material on Moodle
Total Workload: 250

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Introduction and description of module
Introduction; major traditions of communication theory; varieties of human communication

Traditions of communication theory and the Socio-psychological tradition
Traditions of communication theory and the Socio-psychological tradition

The self and society
The self and society; Symbolic Interactionism

Interpersonal communication
Relational Dialectics Theory

Communication in groups
Symbolic Convergence Theory

Presentations and performances
The dramaturgical perspective

Mediated communication and mediatization
Mediated communication and mediatization

Media effects [Cultivation theory]
Media effects [Cultivation theory]

News and public opinion [Framing and agenda setting]
News and public opinion [Framing and agenda setting]

Critical approaches to communication [Encoding and decoding]
Critical approaches to communication [Encoding and decoding]

Participatory culture, protest and the public sphere
Participatory culture, protest and the public sphere

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment100% Examination Weight0%
Course Work Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
EssayEnd of term essay70%Week 12
Report(s)Weekly analysis sheets30%n/a
Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories:
Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module.
Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module.
Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category 1
Indicative Reading List

  • E. Griffin: 2020, A First Look at Communication Theory, Tenth, McGraw-Hill., New York,
  • David Crowley & Paul Heyer: 2015, Communication in History: Technology, Culture and Society, Sixth, Routledge, London,
  • Balnaves, M., Hemelryk, S. and Shoesmith, D.S.: 2009, Media Theories and Approaches: A Global Perspective, Red Globe Press,
  • Frey, L. and Cissna, K.: 2009, Routledge Handbook of Applied Communication Research, Routledge, London,
  • G. Burton & R. Dimbleby: 0, Between Ourselves: An Introduction to Interpersonal Communication,
  • Littlejohn, Foss, and Oetzel: 2017, Theories of Human Communication, Eleventh, Waveland Press, New York,
  • Fiske, J.: 2011, Introduction to Communication Studies, Routledge, London,
  • Craig, R. and Mueller: 2007, Theorizing Communication: Readings Across Traditions., Sage, New York,
Other Resources

None

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