Faculty Of Communication Sciences Research Articles

Issue information

SComS is an international open access journal of communication research that is jointly edited by the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research (SACMR) and the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI Lugano). It is published twice a year with the support of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAHS).SComS aims to build bridges between different research cultures, and publishes high-quality original articles in English, German, French, and Italian. As a general forum for communication scholarship, the journal is especially interested in research that crosses disciplinary boundaries.

Expect the unexpected: A path enlightened by the Hunt Fellowship

My interest in language led to an interdisciplinary and international journey through psychology (B.S., National Chengchi University, Taiwan), linguistics (A.M., Brown), cognitive science (Ph.D., Brown), and speech communication (postdoc, MIT) before joining the faculty of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Ohio University. Being awarded the Fellowship in 2001 was a pleasant surprise. The generous support of the Fellowship allowed me to witness how great scientists think, act, and educate. Studying with Professor Ken Stevens and members of the MIT Speech Group further prepared me for research on crosslinguistic aspects of speech communication. The experience also inspired me to mentor my students as I was mentored: with respect and genuine interest. As Professor Hunt envisioned, this Fellowship allowed me to play a small but meaningful part in furthering the science of, and education in acoustics. I am deeply grateful to Professors Sheila Blumstein (Brown), Phil Lieberman (Brown), and Ken Stevens (MIT) for making the journey possible and for believing in me.

Students’ Perception about Teachers’ Nonverbal Immediacy Behavior: A Case of Communication Sciences Faculty

Few concepts in instructional communication literature have received as much attention as teacher immediacy. Although it is very intensively researched in foreign literature, there are small amount of research in Turkey about in class communication especially nonverbal immediacy behaviors. The purpose of this study is to determine how communication students’ evaluate their lecturers’ nonverbal immediacy behaviors. Nonverbal Immediacy Scale (NIS), which was developed by Richmond, McCroskey, and Johnson (2003) were used to collect data. The NIS was applied to 185 college of communication students from a University located in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. Results indicate that colleges of communication students are finding adequate teachers’ nonverbal immediacy behaviors and there are no differences between males and females level of perception.

Attitudes of Female Smokers/Non-Smokers towards Smoke-Free Air Zone Ad Campaign

Turkish government and NGO’s have been broadcasting or publishing some health communication campaigns every year. In these campaigns, the messages generally related to giving up smoking cigarettes, keeping the heart healthy and such an early prognosis of cancers. In Turkey, except in houses for accommodation, smoking was banned in closed areas of all public and private buildings as well as in public transportation vehicles on the 19th of July, 2009. The Ministry of Health named this project as “Smoke-Free Air Zone”.The main aim of this research is to reveal attitudes of female smokers /non-smokers towards SmokeFree Air Zone Ad Campaign. A survey conducted to reach this aim. Attitudes towards a print ad, which contains anti-smoking claims analyzed among the women who smoke and nonsmoke.Sample of the research consist of the female students who are attending Anadolu University, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Department of Advertising and Public Relations.

Reconciliación, una necesaria apuesta desde la educación superior: experiencias pedagógicas en el aula

La participación de las autoras en encuentros que promueven la reconciliación entre distintos sobrevivientes del conflicto armado en Colombia, constituyó una vivencia de gran impacto e inspiración para pensar en la construcción de paz ya que comprobaron que es posible contribuir a otra forma de convivir y superar las heridas y divisiones que este conflicto ha dejado. De ahí surgió la idea de vincular dichos escenarios con el trabajo académico. Dos experiencias pedagógicas con los estudiantes de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación, Universidad Minuto de Dios, fueron el resultado de ello, y constituyeron el detonante para escribir este artículo que pretende dar respuesta a la pregunta: ¿cómo podría aportar la comunidad académica de Uniminuto, sede principal, a la reconciliación del país?

Terminology Management: Applications in Teaching ESP to Public Relations Students

Generally speaking, terminology management refers to a range of activities involved in designing, collecting, documenting and processing data to create a terminology resource. Given that terminology is essential to professional communication and practice in any field of expertise, the present paper argues in favour of integrating fundamental principles of terminology management into ESP teaching. In particular, the aim of the paper is twofold: to share the authors’ experience with such an interdisciplinary approach to teaching ESP to second-year students in Communication and Public Relations at the Faculty of Communication Sciences, Politehnica University of Timişoara, Romania, and to pinpoint the ways in which practical terminology work, carried out by our students among other more traditional ESP specific activities, greatly benefits future Public Relations (PR) specialists.

Strategies for Improving the English Pronunciation of the 1st Year “Translation-interpreting” Students

The future professional translator and interpreter needs to be able to communicate successfully both in the source and in the target language. Among the causes that generate unsuccessful communication is also the inability to speak a language as close to a native speaker as possible. In any language, but especially in English, a faulty pronunciation leads to major message misunderstandings. Therefore, correct pronunciation is essential for any interpreter. The 1st year students of the bachelor's degree program “Translation-Interpreting” of the Faculty of Communication Sciences within the Politehnica University Timişoara (Romania) encounter difficulties in pronouncing English accurately. The present article identifies the causes generating this situation and proposes strategies to overcome it.

Retos y oportunidades en el documental audiovisual: ubicuidad, colaboración y participación ciudadana.

In September 2013 and in the Communication Sciences Faculty of Madrid Complutense University, we had the privilege to defend our doctoral thesis entitled Creativity in documentary feature film in Spain. Relevance of current events. Along with the methodology applied and the results obtained in the past research, our object in this new article is to add two new factors identified in documentary film production during the last two decades: ubiquity and collaboration. We explore some basic questions we encourage Communication Faculties to take into consideration.

Tecnología y transformación de la práctica docente en la formación en Comunicación en la era 2.0: un caso de estudio

Las NTIC han transformado la práctica formativa universitaria de un modo radical. En el caso de los docentes cuyas materias se orientan a la elaboración de productos comunicativos profesionales, y que deben emplear otras tecnologías, la complejidad es aún mayor. En el trabajo que se presenta se ofrecen las aportaciones de la primera fase, de exploración cualitativa, de una investigación diseñada para conocer las transformaciones que este perfil de profesor ha sufrido con el paso del tiempo. También se presentan valoraciones generales sobre el enfoque de esta investigación que están desarrollando miembros del Grupo de Investigación en Publicidad y Relaciones Públicas (GRP) de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, que lo aplicarán al caso de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación de dicha universidad.

The First Step To Communication With Environmentally Responsible Consumer: Measuring Environmental Consciousness Of Turkish Consumers

In recent years a growing concern for global warming and environmental issues has become apparent. Turkey as a rapidly developing country has several environmental problems. In that situation, the attitudes towards to environment and the consciousness level of the Turkish consumers have gained much more importance. For the purpose of increasing the level of consciousness about environmental issues, communication professionals have to establish a relationship between a positive environmental attitudes and environmentally responsible behaviors through the means of communication. Before designing and implementing any kind of communication process, the characteristics and current consciousness level of target group has to be clearly identified. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the attitudes of the Turkish consumers regarding to their current environmental consciousness and their willingness to adopt environmentally friendly consumption behavior. The environmental consciousness survey used in this study was delivered to the 186 students of 298 attending the first year obligatory courses in Communication Sciences Faculty. In this study, the environmental consciousness was formed by the factors related to awareness and act, concern about environment and willingness, were statistically were analyzed in terms of the opinions of the respondents concerning the environmental consciousness in terms of gender, the region that they came from, their department in the faculty of communication sciences, education level of parents, any kind of training concerning the environmental issues or any environmental associations or social clubs memberships.

Principles of medical ethics: implications for the disclosure of medical errors

Principles of medical ethics: implications for the disclosure of medical errors Annegret F HannawaInstitute of Communication and Health, Faculty of Communication Sciences, University of Lugano, Lugano, SwitzerlandAbstract: This review merges interdisciplinary perspectives from communication, law, and medical ethics to advance theoretically framed standards for error disclosure. The standards reflect ethical conduct in respect to providers’ decisions to disclose and their performance of error disclosures. Furthermore, the review operationalizes a list of communicative elements that implement these standards in light of communication competence theory. This work is among the first attempts to justify ethically the disclosure of error-induced adverse events and close calls, facilitating a significant contribution to medical ethics research and practice.Keywords: medical ethics, disclosure, medical errors

Factors influencing a student's decision to pursue a communications degree in Spain

Purpose:  This paper analyzes the factors that influence secondary school students’ choice of higher education options in Spain today and explores the implications and benefits of establishing provider-client relationships between universities and students. Design/methodology/approach:  A quantitative approach using questionnaires to demonstrate the hypothesis and achieve the objectives. We have prepared a questionnaire via telematic LimeSurvey application consisting of twenty-four closed questions. Findings:  Results depict that the leading criteria for Spanish students interested in pursuing studies in communication sciences were a university’s reputation and excellence and the quality of its educational programmes. In terms of sources of information related to universities and their degree programmes, Spanish communication sciences students placed the highest value on direct and experiential sources. Spanish students interested in pursuing degrees in communication sciences preferred public universities over private universities. Research limitations:  It is a descriptive paper. The sample could have been larger and have covered the entire universe of communication schools in Spain. Practical implications:  Gain in-depth insight into the academic, cultural, and sociodemographic characteristics of students who choose to pursue an undergraduate degree in communications sciences in Spain.Ascertain which sources of information proved to be the most valuable to prospective students in choosing a university and degree programme and the other factors that influenced their choices by means of a survey involving first-year undergraduate communication sciences students. Use the results of this survey to rank the criteria used by students when choosing a university and degree programme. Gain a clearer picture of how parents and friends influence a student’s choice of degree programmes and universities. Social implications:  Knowing the factors of choice and sources of information that define his choice of the University and the Faculty of Communication Sciences and analyze if there is an adequate marketing specifically university. Originality/value:  Today’s universities must operate in much the same manner as businesses and corporations in order to survive. This new scenario pits one university against another in a race to attract the highest number of incoming students.Knowing the preferences of college-age students and the factors that influence their choice of a university has become increasingly crucial for institutions of higher education. This study sets out to determine not only the overall factors that determine a student’s choice in Spain, but also specifically what students who have chosen to pursue a university career in communications science look for when deciding where they will earn a degree in that discipline.

The Role of the Teacher in a Formative Interdisciplinary Program. A Study on the Interdisciplinary Master's Program “Communication, Public Relations and Digital Media”

Abstract The present paper aims at defining the task of the teacher in a formative interdisciplinary program. For this purpose, the interdisciplinary master's program “Communication, Public Relations and Digital Media” running at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the University “Politehnica” of Timisoara (Romania) is analyzed. The aspects referring to the organization and the well-functioning of this master's program are called, in this paper, „organization and functioning methods’. These methods and their indicators are analyzed in detail in order to outline the role of the teacher involved in a formative interdisciplinary program.

Methods for Increasing the Efficiency of the Interdisciplinary Learning in the Master's Program “Communication, Public Relations and Digital Media”

Abstract The interdisciplinary master's program “Communication, Public Relations and Digital Media”, running at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the University “Politehnica” of Timisoara, Romania, establishes the necessary framework for developing methods aimed at increasing the efficiency of the educational process. Taking into account the socio-cultural, economic and technical field of study embedded in the specialization of this master's program, we consider that some methods need to be adopted and applied in order to ensure the acquisition, selection, association and use of field-specific knowledge. Their usefulness will be validated by the learning outcomes we get while running this master's program.

Use of Social Networks as an Educational Tool

Social network, particularly Facebook, can be defined as a unique online service, platform, or area where social communication and/or social relations can be established and individuals intensely share information. This definition implies that communication specialists should have more expertise and interest in social media than any other group of experts. Based on this assumption, the present study investigated the views and attitudes of instructors in the Faculty of Communication Sciences at Anadolu University in Turkey, which is a country where the total number of Facebook users ranks fourth in the world. The sample of the study consisted of 67 professors with various levels of academic titles. Data were gathered through a specially-designed survey form including 52 items in four subcategories. Results suggest that three fourth of instructors have a Facebook account and they spend less than half an hour per day on Facebook. There is no genderrelated difference among the faculty in terms of attitudes toward Facebook. Instructors who are younger than 45 years old login Facebook on daily basis, while senior faculty login several times a week. Two in every three instructors use Facebook mainly as a tool of communication with friends. Finally, two thirds of the faculty think that Facebook can provide important contributions to social interactions among students as well as to communications between instructors and students.

ONLINE COMMUNICATION COURSES: THE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AREA OF COMMUNICATION EDUCATION

E-learning as a form of distance education has become one of the essential movements in all levels of education. Almost all of the higher education institutions in Turkey as well as the rest of the world have been trying to offer e-learning opportunities for their students and the staff. Anadolu University in Turkey has a web portal, which is called Anadolu University Internet Supported Education System, which serves to support academicians’ classes via the online system. The academicians generally give their courses in traditional way but they have begun to use this online system to support their courses. Computer and computer-supported technologies are new issues in the instructional communication field. When we look at the course list for the 2008 spring semester on the portal, we see 8 (eight) communication courses, which are given by Communication Sciences Faculty teachers. If we want to develop and deliver successful e-learning programs we should need to know teachers’ behaviours and attitudes before developing an e-learning system. The aim of this research is to find out the academicians’ teaching method when they use the online support system.

Learning to play: games and web technologies in university didactics

The paper aims at presenting an experiment carried out by the chair of new media theories and techniques in the faculty of Communication Sciences at the Sapienza. Thanks to the brilliance of a final-year university student, a game platform has been developed capable of promoting new learning modalities characterized by video-game actions and interactions. Using the potential of strategic browser games, Learning To Play - this is the name of the platform and of the game we are going to present - shows how it is possible to create new and innovative ways of teaching, placing attention on game dynamics, which by using web 2.0 tools can be developed without having to possess particular technical competences. This way it is possible to improve student learning, increasing at the same time their level of satisfaction. The integration of the game platform with the teaching in the classroom of new media theories and techniques shows how learning and play, can merge thanks to the use of web technologies and create a virtuous circle where you can enjoy yourself learning and you can learn enjoying yourself.

Portic.ol: a quality oriented University student community

The article describes an on-line collaborative learning pattern capable of developing a double process of skills evolution. It concerns the three main dimensions of collaborative learning: the theoretical, methodological and social ones. The benefits and characteristics of the educational strategy are based on consolidated academic methods on the one hand, and on an empirical field experimentation on the other. The field experimentation is a collaborative learning community composed of students and trainers (academics and professionals) of the Human Resources Training and Management Course (http://www.comunicazione.uniroma1.it/porticol/) at the Communication Sciences Faculty, «La Sapienza» University in Rome. The Portic.ol student community realizes the learning pattern and develops an interesting didactic experience for the practitioners. The pattern, based on a blended approach, allows the balance between face to face learning and on-line learning to take place. The Portic.ol student community’s learning path has been planned by a focused design activity which is based on three things: design usability, develop common practice, and plan sociability.