Traditions of communication sciences

The course is divided into three main themes: 

1.Basic terms of communication sciences

After a general introduction into the course contents, the main concepts of communication sciences will be discussed and deconstructed. Among other questions, we will focus on the concept of communication itself. We will elaborate on what communication is – and what communication is not. This is important to limit and narrow the field of inquiry. We will also discuss the key notion “medium”. What is a medium? What are different definitions of media? Are communication sciences necessarily concerned with mediated communication? This session will be based on selected readings that are announced in the preparatory session. Students will prepare short oral presentations that summarize these texts. Moreover, students will be asked to discuss how they use these basic concepts in their own research. 

2. Mapping the field and locating the own project
In a second step, we will look at some of the involved disciplines, various “founding texts” or “founding approaches” and selected core theories of communication sciences and put them in relation to each other. This mapping exercise shall help create an overview of communication sciences. We will particularly focus on research that is located at the intersections of the involved disciplines. It will be of particular interest which interrelations do exist between the involved interdisciplinary traditions, how concepts migrate between disciplines and what the involved disciplinary approaches can learn from one another. Starting from the mandatory readings, participants will locate their own approach within the conceptual map.

After this conceptual work, Ph.D. students will position their own research. They will be asked to discuss which other approaches are related to or could be helpful for their project(s). They will be asked to write a short comment (approx. 500 words) that sums up these reflections. 

3. Current challenges of (doing research in) communication sciences

In a third step, current challenges and trends in the communication sciences will be discussed. This serves to assess which (highly heterogeneous) competencies are currently required to conduct research in various fields of communication sciences and how these competencies are transforming. Following this, it will be discussed what it means to conduct "good research" in the communication sciences. This discussion is based on an analysis of important or thematically relevant journals, associations, and conferences, as well as on critical movements that address the requirements for “good research”, “academic excellence” and the challenging career paths in academia. 

Upon concluding the course, PhD students will be requested to compose a brief comment (approx. 500 words) that incorporates their reflections on future directions into their earlier statements.

This course has three main aims:

• to foster the creation of common ground among Ph.D. students in communication
• to help students locate their own work
• to identify transformations and challenges in current communication sciences

In presence

Presentation and discussion in class

Mapping activities

Use of a Wiki on i Corsi 

The evaluation of the course will be based on the following items: 

1. A preliminary 300 words statement containing the following information: 1) topic of the Ph.D. research, 2) mention of the tradition of communication science the participant is most familiar with and 3) a list of three publications that are most relevant for the Ph.D. research. The statement must be submitted one week before the preparatory meeting on iCorsi. Students are also asked to indicate in which of the following languages they feel comfortable reading scientific texts (English, German, Italian, French). The aim is to provide insights from different academic traditions. 
2. In class-resentations (approx. 10 minutes, around 5-8 slides per assigned text) of assigned texts. The presentations should summarize the main concepts of the readings that are individually assigned during the preparatory meeting. 
3. Discussion in class and contributions to the course Wiki.
4. Two short comments (approx. 500 words).

A combination of mandatory bibliography (read by all) and individually assigned mandatory texts ist used.