1. The Study of Contemporary Society
1.1. Sociology: definition and object of study
1.2. The Origins of Sociology
1.3. Sociology today
2. The Stages of Contemporary Society
2.1. The Age of Revolution (1789-1848)
2.2. The Age of Capital (1848-1875)
2.3. The Age of Empire (1875-1914)
2.4. The Age of Extrems: the short 20th century (1914-1991)
2.5. Posmodernism and the End of History (1991-2021)
3. Theories of Contemporary Society (1)
3.1. Durkheim and Funcionalism
3.2. Marx and Historical Materialism
3.3. Weber and Social Action
4. Theories of Contemporary Society (2)
4.1. Social Darwinism: Spencer and Kropotkin
4.2. Funcionalism, Theories of Conflict, Interaccionism
5. Mass Communication
5.1. Lasswell: the Hypodermic Needle Model
5.2. Katz & Lazarsfeld: the Two-Step Flow of Communication Model
6. Communication, Computation and Artificial Intelligence
6.1. Shannon & Weaver: the Mathematical Theory of Communication
6.2. Turing: the Imitation Game
7. The Culture Industry
7.1. The Frankfurt School and Hollywood
7.2. The Culture Industry according to the UNESCO
7.3. The Culture Industry in Spain
8. The Information Society
8.1. McLuhan: the Global Village and the Four Ages of Communication
8.2. Castells: the Internet, Globalitzation and the Network Society
8.3. Audience Targeting and Permanent Record
The evaluation criteria of this subject include the knowledge of the sociological theories explained in class, skills in text commentary, the ability to analize contemporary mass media discourse and expressive correction, clarity and order.
Criteris específics de la nota «No Presentat»:
If none of the evaluation activities is performed, the student will have a zero.
Avaluació única:
Given the characteristics of this subject, no one-test evaluation is considered.
Requisits mínims per aprovar:
In order to pass this subject, a minimum mark of 5 is required.