Organization and Marketing for Corporate Communication

MARCO BINOTTO

GENERAL OBJECTIVES
The course aims to provide the skills needed to complete the educational project of the degree course, focusing on communication and advocacy planning and the knowledge of forms of civic participation, responsible consumption, and social innovation. Such knowledge, communication skills, and critical analysis skills aim to build expertise to be applied autonomously to address the innovations and trends taking place in contemporary societies.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
The course intends to:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- provide a theoretical frame to the concepts and to the most recent scenarios of the Third Sector’s communication, networked and creative activism
- study the theme of social innovation and new forms of economy and consumption such as, for example, fair trade, solidarity purchasing groups, responsible tourism, boycotting experiences, and ethical finance.
- deepen the knowledge on the subject of the cultural definition of social problems and of the processes of transformation of the widespread narratives and collective imaginary related to them.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING, MAKING JUDGEMENTS, AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS
- analyze and describe communication campaigns by institutions, enterprises, and civil society organizations. Analyse and describe the advocacy activities of social movements, participatory experiences, and active citizenship projects on those topics.
- provide the knowledge and skills necessary for the analysis and planning of communication and participation campaigns/activities through the adoption of heuristic tools of analysis and creative ideation as well as in the management of the necessary decision-making and participatory processes. Describe and present in a written, audiovisual, performative, or oral form the project realized through group work.

LEARNING SKILLS
- The set of this knowledge and skills, finally, aims to stimulate an interest in unusual and innovative actors and communication styles, as well as practices, trends, and "counter-trends" present in the world of contemporary markets or in the collective imagination; these skills are designed to be applied independently in the design of communication, marketing, and corporate social responsibility.

The course aims to provide the skills useful to complete the Degree Course's training project on the analysis and design of communication and advocacy activities and knowledge of forms of corporate social and environmental responsibility, responsible consumption and social innovation. This knowledge, communication skills and critical analysis capabilities aim to build skills that can be applied autonomously to address innovations and trends in contemporary societies.
In particular, the course aims to promote knowledge of:
- Consumption data and trends;
- Forms of consumer activism and critical consumption;
- New forms of economics and consumption such as fair trade, fair purchasing groups, responsible tourism, boycott experiences and ethical finance.
- Ecological and sustainable production and enterprises
- creative and "networked" forms of activism related to boycott activities, criticism of "consumerism", subvertising and guerrilla communication
- concepts and scenarios related to Green Marketing and Greenwashing

- Deep knowledge of communication models and processes, of information techniques, as well as adequate methodological skills to process and use them.
- Understanding the role of culture and communication in the contemporary society, on the one hand through the study of the structural and phenomenological aspects of culture as a scientific object, on the other through the contribution that the various social sciences have given to the foundation of communication sciences and of culture.
- Knowledge of the analytical categories useful for reconstructing the evolution of mass media studies and theoretical models (personal influence, agenda setting, the spiral of silence, enconcoding/deconding, etc.) that have been elaborated to evaluate their effects.
- Knowledge of the design and planning processes and of the skills related to the analysis and planning of the mediated communication activities.

The course will be articulated into three parts.
In part I we will compare different definitions and objectives of advocacy, social change and consumer culture. We will explain the main steps necessary to design strategic affirmation and protection of rights and the communiction of “solidarity economy” solidale or the responsible enterprises’ practice (ie, fair trade, solidarity purchaising groups, responsible tourism, boycott campaigns and ethical finance).

Part II will explore innovative experiences and case studies of communication campaigns proposed by civil society organizations, the Third Sector and experiences of critical and responsible consumption. Activities conducted both on mass media (mediactivism) and social media (cyberactivism), subvertising and guerrilla-communication’s experiences and artistic and creative activism.

In part III, we will engage students in the construction and/or analysis of communication projects on one of the themes proposed, which will be achieved through simulation and workshops (case studies, role playing, etc..).

NON-ATTENDING
1. Course text:
Marco Binotto, Comunicazione solidale. Storia e media del consumo responsabile e dei gruppi d’acquisto solidale, Guerini, Milano 2023
2. One book of your choice among:
- L. Leonini, R. Sassatelli (a cura di) Il consumo critico. Significati, pratiche e reti, Laterza 2008.
- Michele Micheletti, Critical Shopping. Consumi individuali e azioni collettive, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2010
- M. Lori, F. Volpi, Scegliere il "bene". Indagine sul consumo responsabile, Franco Angeli, 2007.
3 e 4. Experiences*. Two texts to choose from:
- Autonome a.f.r.i.k.a. gruppe, Luther Blisset Project, Comunicazione-guerriglia. Tattiche di agitazione gioiosa e resistenza ludica all'oppressione, Roma, DeriveApprodi 2002
- Franco Berardi (Bifo), Lorenza Pignatti Adbusters. Ironia e distopia dell’attivismo visuale, Meltemi 2020
- Wolf Bukowski, La danza delle mozzarelle. Slow food, Eataly, Coop e la loro narrazione, Edizioni Alegre 2015
- Fabio Ciconte L'ipocrisia dell'abbondanza. Perché non compreremo più cibo a basso costo, Laterza 2023
- Cyril Dion, Piccolo manuale di resistenza contemporanea. Storie e strategie per trasformare il mondo, Edizioni Ambiente, 2019.
- Antonello Mangano Lo sfruttamento nel piatto. Quello che tutti dovremmo sapere per un consumo consapevole, Laterza 2020
- Michele Micheletti, Critical Shopping. Consumi individuali e azioni collettive, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2010
- Tavolo RES (a cura di), Un’economia nuova, dai Gas alla zeta, Altreconomia Edizioni, Milano, 2013
- One of the non-selected books from point 2

Oral examination and evaluation of the project.

ORAL EXAM: proof of the contents of the exam text(s) and, in the case of people who attended the course, about the contents of the lessons. Some of the relevant elements in the assessment are: the knowledge and understanding of the main contents, the logic followed by the student in their illustration, the ability to contextualize and apply them to other examples or fields or to link the skills acquired in other courses; the use of an appropriate language.

PROJECT: In the case of attending students, a written paper is required to illustrate the contents and the phases of conception and elaboration of the communication project realized during the course. The evaluation of the project is based both on the content of the paper and on the oral presentation made during the examination by the research group.
Some of the relevant elements in the assessment are
a) the ability to critically analyze the social issue/problem, and of other communication or advocacy activities related the same issue;
b) to clarify and identify the objectives of the project and the tools necessary to achieve them;
c) ability in creative ideation, project designing and planning;
d) the ability to present (written, audiovisual, performative or oral) the project idea and the description of the realization's phases of the project