Communication for journalists. Analysis of main authors and approaches studied in communication theories courses at Spanish universities

Abstract

This paper seeks to characterize the way Spanish universities teach communication theories to students of journalism. The research is based on the application of content analysis to the syllabi of courses on communication theories held during the 2013-2014 academic year at Spanish universities. As main results, it is possible to observe the hegemony of mass communication, and the predominance of classical authors and theory traditions. Also, the study finds that courses on communication theories do not provide a specific theoretical approach to address the communicative phenomenon, but rather focus on meta-theoretical overviews of the history of research in communication.

KEYWORDS: communication theories, academic field of communication, teaching communication theories, teaching journalism, Spanish universities, communication research.