It is intended to frame the advertising as an element of the media system. It is also intended to reveal the advertising as a discourse that emphasizes the new, the ideal of youth, the ephemeral, the aesthetics of the products and the construction of imaginative universes.
Another purpose of this seminar will be to promote the reflection and discussion about which of the scenarios presented by White e Mazur (1995) will be the truly relevant one in order to highlight the Public Relations future both as a professional activity and as a theoretical subject.
It is intended, therefore, encourage critical thinking and the skills that enable all who wish to become researchers in the field of Strategic Communication, Public Relations and Communication in the Public Interest a high degree of knowledge and capacity for critical reflection on the fundamentals, problems and developments of this discipline, both in its theoretical assumptions and of their professional practice.

This course is organized in thematic units:
In the first it will be addressed the issues of advertising and communication strategy, the relevance of the communication objectives, the advertising discourse, the persuasion and appeals, and the psychological dimension of the consumption act.
In the second part we will work the notion of "communication" within the framework defined by the Public Relations:
a) the communication is not an addendum to our actions but a special kind of human action, an intentional human action,
b) what we say exceeds what we mean,
c) language is embedded in our human activities, in our life world.
The PR as a strategic function of integration and social development, enabling organizations to understand and adapt to their environment, promoting and encouraging the negotiation between different groups in order to achieve social and economic development.

Doctoral students will be assessed through an individual research.

The participants in the seminar will debate, research and foster their knowledge in the following dimensions:
- World Internet Research Studies.
- Online Social Networks and Networked Cultures of Belonging.
- The debate over new and traditional media: the transformation of mediascapes.
- Media cultures and generations: mobile culture; new social practices; new communication practices; language and interaction; community and identity; space and place.
-Mobile media: mobile Internet; mobile television; mobile music; mobile gaming; mobile e-paper; social networks.
- Television and culture in the digital age
- Impacts of the Internet in cultural consumption and production
- Internet, Religion and Spiritual Communities
- Internet Transnationalism and Mobilities

1. The Informational Revolution
2. Networks and States: Global Policy and Internet
3. Internet, Politics and Society (freedom, participation, sharing, surveillance and privacy)
4. Social interaction and virtual environments
5. Social networks and everyday life

The evaluation will be composed of two crucial moments: holding a text presentation in class (article of a scientific journal or book/chapter of a reference author ? 40% of the final grade) and a final paper ? proposal of a research project, in its various levels, or critical essay of one of themes in the syllabus (60% of the final grade).

Module I (M II)
- To identify and critically evaluate a variety of research methods used by the researchers in the field of communication.
- To promote the development of practical skills that allow the students to collect, analyze and display research data.
Main competences to acquire:
- Mastering the main methodologies applied to communicational contexts.
- Ability to identify a research issue, decide upon the research objectives and select methods and techniques to carry out the research.
Module II
To provide advanced training in treating the results of a qualitative research in a qualitatively way, through the ability to use the Content Analysis software MAXqda(R) in academic and professional contexts.

Module I
1. Theories and general approaches to the research themes.
2. The primacy of theory. Construction of analytical models.
2.1 Qualitative, quantitative and mixed research models.
3. ?Logical and deductive? methodologies.
4. ?Comprehensive? methodologies.
4.1 Principles, characteristics, objectives and base concepts.
4.2 Models and modelling qualitative research.
4.3 Major qualitative techniques for collecting information. Interviews, biographic approaches, observation.
5. Selection of units of observation and sampling.
Module II
Research design
Content Analysis: theory and method
Computer-Aided Content Analysis:
- Introduction to MAXqda
- Codification in MAXqda
- Automatic codification in Maxdictio
- MAXqda outputs
- MAXqda visual tools
- Theme relevance analysis: Articulation between MAXqda and Excel.

- Individual written paper, structured as a research project that demonstrates reflection and comprehension of methodologies and techniques used in Communication Sciences.
- Critical review of a scientific article, taking into account the learning acquired in class.

In the end of the curricular unit, doctoral students should be able to prepare a research project.
In the end of the curricular unit, doctoral students should have finished their thesis project.

To identify the process of initiating a research;
To identify the process of justifying and conceptualizing a research;
To identify the process of defining a research?s objectives and hypotheses, as well as the research?s expected results;
To identify the process of defining a method to carry out a research.

The methodologies will be mostly practical, and the students? route in the unit will guide them on the preparation of the thesis project.

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The evaluation will consist on the presentation of the mentioned project in front of a jury.

1) Be aware of the contemporary international panorama of theoretical production and research in communication: main themes, theories, research agendas, objects, issues, research designs and methodologies
2) To know in depth and articulate a diversity of theoretical problematizations, investigations in communication and inherent processes
3) Recognize the diversity of themes, theories and research designs and methodological strategies in communication
4) Be aware of the main communication research challenges
5) Hold a manual of good practices in social research in communication
6) To be able to develop a research exercise, critical deconstruction and theoretical-methodological problematization of academic investigations in communication.

1) Presentation of the UC: objectives, schedule and evaluation
2) Thematic sessions with international guests

Students must submit an individual written work (with 100% weight) which carry out a bibliographic research exercise and mapping pertinently investigations related to the topic of his thesis.
Then the student must choose one or more relevant investigations to conduct a critical deconstruction of his research design and theoretical and methodological problematization.

The non-continuous evaluation will be carried out by work along the same lines as the previous one.

1-To address communication through media,as a process of creation of meaning and social action.To consider the characteristics of media and media systems in their context(how they articulate social,cultural,economic and political agreements and interests).To recognize media performance and action through media as a vehicle of social mediation and as an opportunity enhancer that: is originated and tends to reproduce society?s power relations; enables influence relations, which depend on involvement and participation; promotes knowledge,sharing and relating to others,culture and entertainment, profitability,power,control and domination,and can be challenged and opposed to. 2-To endorse theoretical knowledge and the ability to analyse media performance as communication and mediation resources,applied to different aspects of social life. 3-To develop capabilities to research,select and apprehend approaches and themes, formulation and presentation of self reflection and questioning.

This curricular unit?s syllabus seeks theoretical and analytical comprehension of the issues related to the clarification of the social role that media play in contemporary times.
General theme
Communication, media and mediations in the era of digital networks.
Specific themes
Communication, media and mediation.
Media, mediation and symbolic power.
Information, knowledge, journalism and media.
Media, culture and entertainment.
Media, sociability and community.
Media, publics and audiences.
Media, consumption and identity.
Media, public opinion, politics and democracy.
Media, innovation and social change.

The evaluation will consider participation in presentations, debates and seminars, and also the classification obtained in the final paper: work developed under a theme selected by the doctoral student, in agreement with the teacher, and that is relevant to the curricular unit, between 3000 and 5000 words (around ten A4 pages).

The learning outcomes of the Internship are adapted to each internship and the institution where it is developed. These are:
LO1. To acquire technical skills linked to methods and techniques for action within different kinds of institutions related to the general objectives and learning outcomes of the master's degree;
LO2. To develop research and action-research skills within organizations related to the master's degree;
LO3. To prepare an internship report that reveals analytical reflection of the professional or academic context;
LO4. Develop indicators for recording and evaluating professional practice.

1. Topic and problem of the internship
2. Internship plan
3. Theoretical and methodological framework
4. Methodology of collaborative action research
5. Evaluation
6. Report

Individual report, which contains the following elements:
a) Characterization of the institutional context (history, organization, policies and services, activities, organizational structure and functioning);
b) Framing the internship institution;
c) Description of the activities developed (roles, responsibilities, agents, work processes, methodologies used)
d) Critical and theoretically based conclusions
e) References
The UC does not contemplate the modality of evaluation by Exam.

It is about enabling the production of the doctoral thesis. In the transition from the first to the second year of the doctorate degree, the student will already have a coherent and feasible research project, attested by the corresponding public evaluation. Now, it will be the time to continue the project, and the student will specify its framework without overlapping the study director?s orientation.

The syllabus will be, in each year, closely aligned to the research projects presented and implemented by doctoral students, trying to find, through presentation and discussion of completed or in progress research works, the foundations for a better theoretical contextualization of the students? works.

1. Explanation of theories, methods and practices that are relevant to the research projects in preparation
2. Organization of seminar cycles focused on specific themes
3. Providing conveniently updated bibliographies
4. Organization of conferences

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Participation and intervention in seminars and conferences will be evaluated by the teacher, that will document this evaluation to finish the study cycle, and any negative evaluation will compromise the thesis? presentation.