The Course

The main educational objective of the master's degree course in Digital Communication is to train students with adequate scientific knowledge, critical awareness and technical-specialist skills for the analysis, management and evaluation of all communication phenomena that make direct and indirect use of digital instruments.

The proposed educational path is intended to impart:

• specific skills in analysing operational problems related to the world of communication with particular reference to the implementation of digital technologies;
• specific skills for the design of digital communication products, communication campaigns on digital media, tools for managing intra- and inter-organizational communication flows;
• specific skills useful for the ex ante, in itinere and ex-post evaluation of these operational solutions.

These training objectives have a multi-disciplinary nature which, in addition to developing analytical and design expertise, helps to enhance the critical awareness needed to discuss and evaluate the ethical consequences and the social repercussions of communicative policies that make use of digital media. 

Another objective of the CDLM is to develop the relational and management  skills that are necessary to coordinate the work of a group of specialists. 

The study plan (120 CFUs) is divided into five essential learning areas which develop the training objectives mentioned above.

These five areas are:

1. An engineering area, which includes courses with the following teaching content: 
   • basic hardware and software infrastructure of digital technologies and for protection models in cyber security
   • integrated digital ecosystems
   • technologies which optimise WEB and Social Media platforms (SEO and SEM)
2. A methodological area in which students develop specific skills to enable them to manage the typical digital tools used in social, political, economic and market research such as: 
   • models of data construction using digital platforms ( CAWI;CATI systems; BIGDATA dataware-housing)
   • complex data analysis models with the use of specific algorithms  (BIG DATA analytics and simulations based on machine learning)
   • analysis models of processes for political and institutional marketing for the public decision making.
3. An area involving content production, which includes the following subjects:
   • the linguistics of digital communication 
   • analysis and management of digital communication flows with public opinion 
   • digital marketing with particular focus on its use for both the public and the business world 
   • narrative communication tools applied to the digital world 
   • models of digital journalism.
4. A legal area which focuses on the development of specific skills in relation to:
   • personal data protection 
   • intellectual property in digital communication 
   • public law regulations with regard to information 
   • communication and information in Public Administration.
5. An area focusing on the management of digital processes in organisations where competencies in the following fields will be developed :
   • public relations
   • digital organisational models and human resources 
   • public diplomacy and the digital era.

The lessons are organised in a procedural manner. For all of the learning areas indicated, a preparatory subject of a more institutional type is proposed that provides the specialised theoretical framework of the area followed by subjects that allow for a more in-depth specialisation.

Some courses follow an alternative approach to allow students  a more personalised learning approach focusing on different themes. Each of these thematic focuses can be studied in more detail at different levels thus allowing students to manage their own individual paths according to their personal training objectives, interests and aptitudes (guided by a specific commission of the Teaching Commission). However, this does not change the multidisciplinary foundation that all students receive.

The lessons and the other teaching activities that are part of the study plan are divided into four semesters, that is, two years which follow an incremental logic: firstly there are technical and analytical-methodological subjects, and subsequently subjects that provide and develop skills in the management and creation of content. 

In the final part of the programme, training is completed with a mandatory internship and a degree thesis that is evaluated during the final exam. These final elements of the training path are aimed at helping the student activate the skills acquired in the first part of the course, and they are all closely connected.