The nature of technology and journalism is in permanent change. Digitalization has not changed the core principles that underlie journalism, yet it has allowed a terrific shift in terms of habits, capacities and expectations of news production and news consumption –and of course of business models–, but also major changes in news avoidance, inequality in accessing quality news (and its impact on democracy and participation), and trust in media and in news. In this course, which is intended mainly in a practical way, is aimed at understanding the birth and evolution of online journalism, its characteristics, and at assessing the quality of digital media on the Internet. Theoretical content is also provided in order to build practice on it. Hence, students will look for the best practices in international news coverage online through three main levels: company, messages, and user interaction.

This course provides a dynamic, multi-disciplinary introduction to Contemporary Art in Spain. A background on this specified field is not required. For this reason not only the main artistic events will be covered, but also some political, historical and cultural issues that might be relevant. Although this course is manly based on lectures and class debate, four visits to art centers and exhibitions will be also part of the course requirements. These visits will be made during class time and are equivalent to a usual in-class lecture. We will discuss recent classics as well as emerging artists, and we will cover a wide range of artistic practices, from photography to afterpop music, including installation art, performance art and comic art. Although the course offers several relevant clues to understand the historical context and particular conditions in Spain, it is also intended as a more general insight into contemporary artistic strategies and topics.

https://www.upf.edu/documents/235672946/269802014/BaPIS_artangender_F23_G1.pdf/f708af31-5e54-a142-6760-8f59f22f24ec?t=1695711422097

Once labeled by Newsweek magazine as the “coolest city in Europe,” Barcelona enjoys the reputation of a cosmopolitan city with a great international projection. Like all places, however, it is not without its complexities and contradictions. Behind a glossy and tourist-friendly façade, the city has a complex history.

This course introduces the student to the city of Barcelona by studying its past and analyzing its present. This interdisciplinary course covers subject in history, geography, art, architecture, and urban planning. Materials include images, maps, academic and literary texts, videos, field studies, and documentaries. We will also discuss issues relevant to people living within the city of Barcelona today.

https://www.upf.edu/documents/235672946/269802014/BaPIS_bcnhisten_F23.pdf/7dc463cb-6ba1-dd50-725c-754a842c7652?t=1683102309097

The birth of cinema transformed the way we understand artistic creation. Film is a mechanically reproduced artwork without the aura of uniqueness that characterizes classical pieces (Benjamin, 1935). It emerges as a mechanical extension of the human body, an “artificial eye”. Film production is also automated: it is a paradigm of “creative industry” (Howkins, 2001). In many ways, cinema appears at the intersection of the joint creative effort of human talent, industry, science & technology. This course will study various aspects of creativity and authorship in examples from Spanish cinematography. Early theoretical and practical approaches to filmic creation, the development of new artistic professions and creative labor organization in the film industry will be studied through Spanish silent cinema and the growth of CIFESA studios (1932-1961).

There will be an introduction to the debates over the status of film’s leading creators, looking at producers, directors, and writers from this period. The political dimension will be presented through the creative ways in which filmmakers eluded Franco’s censorship. Since the 1960s and the rise of modern cinema, the highly influential French auteur theory favors the director as a film’s main creator. The course will introduce Spanish auteurs from the modern period (Camus, Picazo) and present critiques of the director’s importance, implicit in works of postmodern filmmakers (Almodóvar, Medem). The challenges faced by contemporary auteurs (Lacuesta, Sorogoyen) at the side of recent ideas sharply opposed to the auteur theory that consider films as a result of collective creation (Sellors, 2007) or the audience as a creative force (Mayne, 2002). The work of Spanish experimental filmmaking platforms like “Authorless Cinema Collective”, as well as the creative design of contemporary Spanish cinematography’s cultural policies and initiatives that foster female creativity will be considered. This course will also have a creative component: students will make short films as group projects.

https://www.upf.edu/documents/235672946/269802014/BaPIS_cinematic_F23.pdf/725a1ded-e6c7-7de2-f242-09fc84e953d1?t=1681893770359

We live in a new era characterized by globalization and the digital revolution, and by the emergence of new planetary challenges and threats that require global, collective and effective solutions. These planetary challenges and threats include climate emergency, global health, nuclear security, global inequality, migratory movements, tax evasion, global terrorism, digital security and privacy, etc. All these challenges are global, complex, and interrelated. They need a response that is also global, intelligent and effective. An adequate management of them requires a holistic approach such as the United Nations’s framework of Sustainable Development Goals and UPF’s proposal for “planetary wellbeing”. This course will study how global institutions, as well as nation states, cities and others actors, can face global challenges like those mentioned above. Their responses will need to be creative and intelligent. This is why this course will focus on the new ways in which collective intelligence, crowdsourcing methods and public involvement in decision making in general can enhance the quality of global responses to these challenges. Students will be exposed to some successful practical examples of collective intelligence enhanced through new technologies, like the idea of Crowdlaw, which might combine data analysis, machine learning, AI, Blockchain and even virtual reality with the aim of improving public decision making.



The course will also focus on the conditions under which international organizations, states and cities can make or contribute to make international legal decisions that might provide solutions to these problems in a way that preserves democratic legitimacy and justice. For that purpose, this course will combine the study of global governance, and new technologies with political philosophy, legal philosophy, international law and international relations.

After being exposed to all these existing solutions, students will be asked to be creative and work collectively to learn from each other and to find the best solutions to the problems they choose to work in. Each student will have to work on a particular problem, but he/she will share with the rest of the class his/her work and proposed solutions and all students will help each other to refine their final proposals

https://www.upf.edu/documents/235672946/269802014/BaPIS_collectiveintsol_F23.pdf/0e0eb540-392c-0eb0-ce98-3aa91a1d02ce?t=1683527972751

Although globalization and sustainability have become familiar terms, they are at cross purposes. The way globalization has been conducted with an emphasis on the economic sphere—international trade and cross-border investment flows, has created a series of crises that threaten the ethical values and beliefs of a sustainable society. The primary goal of a business is usually seen as making a profit, however, the path towards achieving this goal can, in many instances, create dilemmas regarding justice, equity and honesty.



Ethics goes beyond what is or is not legal as it is concerned with the ethical reflection of what represents right and wrong behavior in a complex, dynamic, and global environment. On this course we will discuss ethical approaches to global issues that are enhanced by the process of globalization and increasing multiculturalism, e.g. the environment, global citizenship & governance, poverty and inequality, peace and conflict, human rights, health and the effects of technology among others.



Because global issues are complex, this course is not about providing students with formulas for making decision-making easier; instead the ideas and frameworks introduced in this course are designed to actually make decision-making more difficult, but will help students to reason more effectively and develop their sense of responsible judgment.



https://www.upf.edu/documents/235672946/269802014/BaPIS_ethics_F23.pdf/3506f85a-63e5-fd9e-f833-b87041fb97f2?t=1681813613850

It was as recently as 1992 that a UN Committee (the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women) asserted that gender-based violence against women was a form of discrimination and a human rights violation and not just a private matter in which the State should not interfere. Since then, a number of instruments and mechanisms have been developed within the UN Human Rights System as well as in regional human rights’ protection systems to address such violence and, in recent years, to also include protection of other persons affected by gender-based violence, in particular, the LGBTIQ+ community.



For this purpose, the historic evolution that led to frame gender-based violence as a human rights violation and analyze the existing instruments and tools available at the international level (both UN and regional) to ensure that states adequately address gender-based violence against women and LGBTIQ+ individuals will be reviewed.



The course will focus on international binding instruments, including international conventions (both, general and specifically addressing gender-based violence) and jurisprudence from international courts, as well as non-binding instruments such as recommendations from specialized bodies and organs at the UN and regional levels. It will examine the existing mechanisms and procedures available at the regional and international levels for individual complaints or communications as well as for reports of wider situations of gender-based violence, and the developments to address gender-based violence in International Criminal Law, including the evolution in jurisprudence towards framing gender-based crimes as international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.



https://www.upf.edu/documents/235672946/269802014/BaPIS_genderbased_F23.pdf/1b12381d-a46f-bf28-3f0a-fbb6a9242fa3?t=1683282789753

European football (soccer) has become a major cultural vehicle in the global world, both in terms of economical impact and social influence. This course focuses on how this sport shapes the social, economical and cultural realms, and tries to interpret the different links between the game itself and the dimensions surrounding it: media coverage, aesthetic value, political targeting, public and corporate policies… In that context, FC Barcelona remains a unique case, studied in business schools as an example of global market branding, while passionately lived by millions of fans all over the world. Moreover, Barcelona city offers a privileged standpoint to better understand football as a growing issue within contemporary culture.

https://www.upf.edu/documents/235672946/269802014/BaPIS_globalcultureFCB_F23.pdf/606d6707-8828-c2bf-48de-fa0cac2f1c44?t=1681813614117

The literary text is a good resource for the development of intercultural competences, as it allows the student to observe and confront the belief system of his/her own community with that of the language he/she is learning and to reflect on the different values and attitudes of both cultures in order to act appropriately in the target language. In this sense, the course aims to bring contemporary Spanish literature closer to the student, through the reading and analysis of a selection of literary texts of different genres (narrative, poetry and theater), to develop their interpretative and reading skills, and to acquire techniques and criteria to enhance and stimulate their creative capacity.
From the study of the selected texts, social, cultural and historical issues that contribute to a better and more complete interpretation of them will be addressed, and critical thinking and autonomy will be fostered in relation to the readings that are carried out. The aim is not to reach a definitive interpretation of the texts analyzed, but to use them as a stimulus for the student to transmit ideas, feelings and emotions, and as a basis for reflection, reasoning and discussion in the classroom.