UCL - Communication in advertising

[COMU2330]

[30h] 5 credits

Teacher(s): Philippe Marion

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

The course aims to identify advertisements as a global phenomenon, and to understand them in their institutional, meaningful and communicational dimensions and in their various media crystallisations. Students will need to acquire the conceptual and methodological means to conduct analyses in, and critical interpretations of, various media forms of advertising communication, in addition to a good knowledge of the pole of production (the world of advertising).

Main themes

The course will offer a critical description and presentation of the advertising industry, ranging from production areas through mediatisation campaigns and activities, to recipient populations. It will also present various analytical methods and methodological approaches to enable students to understand the many aspects of the discourse and of advertising strategies. There will be a special focus on a comparative study of the various parts of the media used by advertising.

Content and teaching methods

The course will provide an outline of the world of advertising. A knowledge of the ways that the world of advertising works is necessary for putting the messages it produces into perspective. Questions include How do workers in advertising organise their work? and What relationships grow up between advertisers and agencies?
Much of the course will then be given over to recognised explanatory models, and to theoretical, conceptual and methodological landmarks that will help to analyse messages and advertising communication. An examination of different ways of understanding advertising (e.g. semiotic, socio-semiotic, rhetorical and semio-pragmatic) will be used as the basis for surveys of the form of programmes and analytical frameworks.
This will be followed by a review of the main media supporters and vectors of advertising communication (i.e. traditional supports like posters, the press, radio and television). Contemporary supports with on-line advertising, and developments of this on the Internet. Special reading programmes will be suggested for each area of the media under examination, and put to the test using a range of examples.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Course requirements: Compulsory 2nd-cycle degree courses in information and communication.
Assessment: Assessment will look at students ability to reconstruct the various components of the course critically and in detail. Particular attention will be paid to their ability to implement strategies for analysing present-day advertising messages.
Support: Syllabus, a portfolio of reading and a series of illustrations.