English for Communication Course by Prof. Spano, Università Cattolica

INGLESE PER LA COMUNICAZIONE

LESSON 1 -22/02/2021: Brand Values

What does dove and diesel make? They are trying to incorporate values to the brand. Diesel: support diversity and values that are linked to the human identity -> be yourself and be different Dove: The right of the women to feel beautiful, it's about the values -> Dove with the campaign tries to tell the audience that they sell beauty products for real people. For Real they mean all type of people: there are women of all types of bodies, height and skin color. They try to break the audience general idea of beaty

How do you express this idea of diversity by diesel or dove? The final purpose is to sell; the message that we receive has not to be processed at a level that is not the consciuous one, but it can be powerful and effective. We don't see the products, but the brands did these because it's about the buyers, to conquest a larger amount of consumers. Consumer has an economic connotation. Maybe they want to spread the message that everyone "deserves" to dress and to take care of themselves, no matter what they look like or who they are. They want to create a good imagine of them, because in this way people will buy their products.

ENGLISH AS LINGUA FRANCA:

English is a lingua franca (ELF) because is a contact language between people who share neither a common native tongue nor (nè) a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication. You have to speak English if you want to act and move in globalisation" (Édouard Philippe, French Prime Minister, 2 March 2018) English used as lingua franca: the G20, social media, business and finance, the UN, film industry, the EU, radio and television. The singers chose English for their music because they want to reach a bigger audience. Even Italian brands goes for English advertisements.

"People tend to include or exclude from their cognitions what the media include or exclude from their content" (Donald L. Shaw, 1979, p. 96) Donald shaw: Maybe it says that people tent to just read or understand what they see or hear. But sometimes the unsaid is more important. The media representation are reproposition or reality; media representation cannot be transparent and the stands cannot reproduce the complex of reality, there is a portion of reality.

English Language Characteristics

English is a KISS (KEEP IT SHORT AND SIMPLE) language, because it favors: o short and precise sentences with simple language; texts are readerly o concise and direct style o coordination and not subordination

ITALIAN or others (such as latin languages) are KILC (KEEP IT LONG AND COMPLEX): o texts focus more on the writer o complex sentences structure and lexis. Idea that lengthy, dense texts = authority o favours indirect, implicit style

KISS Style Rules

• use the SVO structure (SUBJECT - VERB - OBJECT). Avoid preambles and long introductions.
• use full stops and short sentences. One sentence should convey one idea
• use bullet points (elenco puntato)
• use short linking words
• start a new paragraph for a new argument
• use and informal register; use active instead of passive verbs forms; use verbal style
• be personal
• use repetitions
• be reader - oriented

THE ART OF PERSUASION - AKA ADVERTISING:

read and answer the 4 questions:

1. What was the book The Hidden Persuaders about? The book The Hidden Persuaders is about psychological manipulation and the author also thought about the morality of how advertising played on fears and sub-conscious desires of consumers to compel them to buy products they did not want or need. Ads manipulate human mind.
2. Why is psychology important for the advertising industry? It is very important because it permits to learn how to persuade, convince and sell. The study of this discipline (behind the behavior of the consumer) has increased for developing new advertising techniques and to ensure consumers do not become immune to advertising messages.
3. What is neuro-marketing? Neuro-marketing is useful to study our brain, in order to see how it responds in certain situations; for example they had made an experiment with special glasses, with these they can analyze the movement of the eyes of the shoppers while they were walking through a supermarket.
4. What predictions are there in the article for the future of advertising? In the article for the future of advertising there are predictions that could be possible in the future; for example technology that is very helpful in these days and with the use of wearables (dispositivi indossabili) it will be possible to track how we feel and react through the measurement of the heart rate and skin temperature, in order to adjust the adverts we see. The technology will also help in the field of virtual reality, because it will permit to immerse in a creative world based on our shopping history, likes and desires.

LESSON 2 - 1/03/2021: MEDIA STUDIES

P. 1-9

WHAT ARE THE MEDIA?

The term of the media is an umbrella term for the industries of TV, film, newspaper, magazines, internet, radio, videogames. MEDIA is the plural of MEDIUM -> so when we write, we have to use media have, media are. Tv is a medium of communication, where a small group of people can produce a TV programme that is watched by millions - Britain's Got Talent, Coronation Street, X-Factor. The media forms listed above are mass media - because they are intended to communicate with great numbers of people. It is these mass media which are the focus of the academic subject of media studies at A-Level and beyond. Media have come to matter more and more in everyday life - economically and culturally. From the Oxford English Dictionary: MEDIA STUDIES is the analysis of the mass media; study of the media as an academic discipline. In universities across the world, Media Studies is now an established academic field. Media Studies is more than simply the study of media; it is also a set of practices for defining the study of media and organizing studies of existing academic studies of the media. Media Studies, the noun, refers to a meeting place for a lot of different people with differing approaches, questions and agendas. Media Studies can be thought of, therefore, as a field of study rather than a discipline with its own discrete concepts, traditions and methods for doing research and finding things out.

DEFINITIONS:

Media is the the plural of Medium Medium of communication -> A conduit through which messages are channeled and pass between one person and another or from one to another 'Mass Media' -> the manner in which various media forms send messages (broadly conceived), from a single source to many destinations simultaneously or in a similar form to an anonymous mass of people, who constitute the audience, consumers, listenership, readership, community and so on

How did the medium impact on the way we integrated in our lives? - > internet, social media, multifunctionality, Speed; We use it to interact, the communication follows a double direction; They allow you to be in connection with everyone around the world in an easier way; Worldwide connection; It let us being in different virtual places at the same time. The idea of audience has changed.

Marshall Mcluhan and Global Village

Marshall Mcluhan (1911-1980): and the idea of GLOBAL VILLAGE Communications have reduced traditional limits of space and time across the globe; in today's world, the global and the local are inevitably linked. Mass media have contributed extensively to the establishment of these social and cultural interconnections. "The medium is the message" (McLuhan 1964): because of media forms we live, think and communicate differently from those generations who came before these forms The combination of global and local characterize the world of today. The message is the specific media content, the program that we can watch on tv, the music we can listen on the radio ...

THE CONTEXT OF MEDIA AND MEDIA STUDIES:

It is fundamental to think of 'media in context'* We have to analyze the significance of media in society. The effect or influence that consuming media messages has on society / on individual audience members. How societies are organized, how ideas are established, accepted and distributed, how languages are involved in and influence ideas, how media products 'speak' What matters is that media matter to us' -> Sources of information, Entertainment, Modes of communication; Even advertising impact in an unconscious level.

MEDIA STUDIES JOURNALS - Academic Sources of Reference

• JOURNALISM STUDIES This is published six times a year. It has contributors from around the world who discuss relevant topics surrounding news, politics, current affairs, public relations and advertising
• MASS COMMUNICATION AND SOCIETY This is published four times a year. It publishes articles from a wide variety of perspectives and approaches that advance mass communication theory
• MEDIA, CULTURE AND SOCIETY This is possibly the most well-known media studies journal, and has been in existence for almost 30 years. It is published every two months and features articles on all media, drawing on different disciplines and approaches
• NEW MEDIA AND SOCIETY The field of new media studies is fast-moving with important developments happening constantly. New Media and Society allows scholars to be aware of what research is currently being undertaken in this exciting field
• PARTICIPATIONS This is a new journal and it differs from the other journals discussed here as it is published only online. It is devoted to audience and reception studies

KEY TERMS:

Advertising

It is a form of communication designed to generate awareness of products, services and organizations. Its purpose is to persuade potential 'customers' to purchase or to consume a particular brand, products or service.

• 'Use Value' vs. 'Sign Value'
• The 'Brand Paradox'
• Language and Slogans

Audience

It is an anonymous and variable collective of individuals addressed (as a group of individuals) by the organs of 'mass' media communication.

• The Concept of 'The Audience': Theories and Studies
• Audiences as Active Users
• Audiences and New Media
• Audiences and Media Fandom
• Audiences in the Convergence Era
• Trans-Media Strategies -> Imaginary Worlds turn into Expanded Narrative Brands

Convergence

It is a term for the merging of different technologies and industries to create new forms of cultural product and new modes for their production and delivery. The term also refers to the flow of content across multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences, who will go almost anywhere in search of the kinds of entertainment experiences they want'

• Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (Henry Jenkins, 2006) -> Convergence Culture maps a new territory: where old and new media intersect, where grassroots and corporate media collide, where the power of the media producer and the power of the consumer interact in unpredictable ways.
• Collective Intelligence
• Participatory Culture
• Cognitive Surplus