Course Title：Introduction to Mass Media

Mass media have a decisive influence on our daily lives. With newspapers, radio, TV and the so-called new media we do not only inform ourselves about the world, but we do also use them to educate our children and we to look for activities to cover our spare time. The general objective of this course is to gather key concepts and notions, from a theoretical and a practical point of view, of mass and social communication. Interest will be drawn upon traditional media, such as newspapers, radio and TV, as well as the most recent examples of multimedia, crossmedia and transmedia journalism, where interactivity and immersivity are contributing to change the scope of journalism to radical new landscapes, with all the new possibilities, for example, of virtual reality. In the second part of the course connections will be done between journalism and different specialized sectors of communication such as conflicts, travel, interculturality, economy and education. After participating in this course, students will be able to distinguish the different journalistic genres, regardless of the media, and talk about their characteristics. They will also be able to construct their own pieces of information in different formats/genres/media.