The study area of this department contains the basic study fields in a theoretical basis that will assist to understand and explain the problems of communication both in social and interpersonal levels. Communication, just like any other social science has its own dynamics and dimensions. The knowledge, collected by the basic disciplines, for understanding and explaining these dynamics and dimensions is integrated through commenting on the particular characteristics of the very special area of communication. In this framework, Department of Society and Communication has been structured in five study fields.
These fields of study have been chosen in a sequence that sets the connection of modern institutions of social life and structure of communication and discusses the points they intersect and collide. The information regarding the establishment of the departments are as follows:
Communication and Political Science
The theoretical knowledge produced in the political science area, puts forward some approaches that can be used to discuss the problems regarding the communication area, although the main aim was not so. The discipline of communication adapted these theoretical approaches, referred to the literature of political science and melted them in its own genuine way.
So, the study field of the Communication and Political Science, contains the theoretic approaches on the communication and mass media in the political science area. In the intersection of these areas, the areas of question can be identified: democracy, the political and social power relations and communication, public - public opinion - public sphere and media, the differentiation of the private sphere and the public sphere, public and media, political representation and identity.
Political Communication
The field of study is the relation between political processes and the communication processes. Communication's use of public knowledge, beliefs and the acts about the political matters in a strategic manner forms the basic questions in development of the field of political communication.
The political communication, based on the traditional approach, relates mass media channels and political messages.
The areas of research contain the election campaigns, the practices of the political parties for using the media and the strategies to build a public opinion. This area not only examines the dominant institutions that try to influence the daily politics through propaganda and persuasion, but also searches the strategies applied politicizing the daily life by the opposing - publics and the attitudes and the demand of these as well. The context of the area is designed to combine both the traditional and the critical perspectives.
Communication and Behavior Sciences
The area contains all the sociology approaches that put emphasis on the observable acts of behavior. These disciplines rely on the theories in psychology, social psychology and sociology. These disciplines have theoretic and methodological contribution in the examination of the behavior of communication. So, it should be included into the communication studies area. The field of study will be structured in order to combine behavioral perspectives and communication.
Interpersonal Communication
This area relates interpersonal communication, psychology and social psychology with communication. In the process of individual's maintenance of relation with the others, it is important to establish the connection between the identity management techniques and the methods the that are used to regulate one's own social life, using the social roles, norms and attributions. This field of study will be structured to understand the stages in which the individual relates to the society and succeeds in an individual through theoretical approaches and perspectives.
Communication Law
This area examines the social communication institutions in their relation to the law. In this area, the law of communication and telecommunication; regime of media, the production and the circulation of the visual communication products, copyright laws, the legal regulations regarding telecommunication, the committees and institutions regulating the communication sector, the regulations concerning the legal rights and responsibilities of the media workers will be studied.
Focusing on the rights and freedoms concerning the social communication, this area examines the current and historical events, in national and international levels.
Method Discussions
Methodology controls the production of reliable and valid information in the academic work. It is of great importance to the field of communication sciences to make use of methodology.
The communication studies area, in the social sciences, has its own questions and problems. The differences, revealed by the specificity of the discipline, causes diversity in the use of research tools and methods.
Methodology provides all the subdivisions of the communication sciences with knowledge of methodology and topics of discussion.
Society and Communication Chair, containing all these basic disciplines, will provide the social scientific bases for the Hacettepe University Communication Faculty, which is planned to have its own approach and position. The establishing disciplines in the base of this chair have great importance for understanding and examining the rapidly changing communicational phenomenon, as it will supply the necessary knowledge and the approaches.
Prof. Dr. Suavi AYDIN
Prof. Dr. Emre TOROS
Doç. Dr. Burcu ŞİMŞEK"
Öğr. Gör. Burcu ŞENEL ALPUĞAN (Görevlendirme ile)
Arş. Gör. Dr. Gökçe ZEYBEK KABAKCI