COMMUNICATIONS THEORIES - BMEGT43A209

One of the most striking features of communication research is that it is the field of research programs with different disciplinary backgrounds, working with different methodologies, using different types of explanations, with conceptual tools at different levels of abstraction, and striving for different levels of generalization. The aim of the subject is to provide a systematic and historical insight into this diversity. The student who successfully completes the course has the knowledge to place the approaches and problem statements to be learned in the subjects included in the professional training in the spectrum of communication research, and knows their antecedents, methodological frameworks, and disciplinary background, and also has a well-founded picture of the historical development of communication research from a scientific and theoretical point of view.

1. Reliable and soundknowledge of contemporary tendencies of methodologies of social science.
2. Solid knowledge of the theory and history of communication and media sciences.
3. Solid historical knowledge of the operating mechanisms of the communication institutional system.

1. Skills of making independent analysis, knowledge claims, explanations and drawing valid conclusions.
2. Skills of using a number of technical tools for critical analysis and research.
3. Skills of cooperative participation in professional projects.

1. Acceptance of one's own (Western) cultural traditions
2. Acceptance of other (non-Western) cultural traditions, and openness to get to know them
3. Presence from and standing out against social science egocentrism in social science fields.

1. Representative of quality work
2. Readiness of disseminating of one's own world view and norms in the scientific professional environ-ment
3. Adoption and enforcement of professional standards.

Lectures

• A tantárgy elvégzéshez szükséges oktatási anyagok, szakirodalom a kurzus moodle-oldaláról érhető el a hallgatóknak (edu.gtk.bme.hu)

- mid-term assessment: active use of the concepts of the material learned up to that point • interpretive, argumentative, explanatory reconstruction and interpretation of the reviewed material either in the form of a classroom written exam or homework

– class work: active participation in discussions related to the class presentation –mid-semester assessment: passive use of the concepts of the material learned up to that point – interpretive, argumentative, explanatory reconstruction and interpretation of the reviewed material either in the form of a classroom oral exam or of an essay – optional midterm assignment: relevant, adequat, compatible of the chosen disciplinary discourse research project proposal

• midterm performance assessment: 30
• participation in class: 10
• total: 40

• oral or written exam: 60

Attendance is mandatory (no more than 4 missed classes are allowed). achieving minimum 50% on the midterm test.

Retake and make-up test options are defined by the valid regulations of the University’s Code on Education and Examination.

historical background of communication and media scholarship disciplinary traditions: rhetorics, sociology, semiotics, etology, cultural studies, social psychology, cognitive science, philosophy media effect theories direct and indirect effects macro- and micro, short term and longterm media effects propaganda, manipulation the role of available technology in shaping the available content theories of communication as structural element of different levels of social organisation