Advertising and Visual Communication

This course explores the role that visual imagery plays in contemporary society, by means of looking at the visual as a key communication as well as economic and cultural resource. The course offers both an overview of established critical theories of visual communication and more contemporary takes on visual analysis and visuality at large. To gain critical understanding of the central role that visual communication plays in global and local contexts alike, the course relies on a wide range of examples and case studies from key communication industries including advertising, film, stock photography, branding, digital media, and news media. As well as studying visual communication theories, methods for critical visual analysis and specific examples and cases, students will develop their own original research on specific dimensions of visual communication.

Students completing this course will:
· acquire experience in analyzing specific examples and cases through the theoretical and methodological instruments offered by visual communication scholarship
· acquire knowledge of the various flows of communication products and practices that characterize contemporary visual communication
· develop an understanding of the complexity of visual communication and its implications on local, national and transnational levels
· develop analytical skills for sophisticated analyses of visual texts in relation to language, materiality and the contexts of their production and reception
· examine specific case studies and controversial issues within the field, especially the relations of power involved in visual communication (e.g. issues tied to the representation and communication of gender/sexual, racial/ethnic, national/regional and transnational/global identities)
· reflect on their role and ethical responsibility as producers and users of visual images in social science and humanities research and everyday contexts alike