C9126 - MEDIA CULTURE, HUMANITARIANISM AND CLIMATE MOBILITY JUSTICE

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be expected to be able to understand and analyse the role of media in covering humanitarian emergencies, symbolic and material borders, climate change and human rights. The course gives students competences and knowledge necessary to conceptualize how media, NGOs, governments, and corporations—particularly in the Global North—construct and circulate discourses about climate crisis, suffering, justice and intervention. Although it focuses on communication, border politics and climate mobility justice, this critical analytical framework can be applied to other areas of research.

Course contents

This course is a continuation, extension and update of the Humanitarian Communication course. Focusing on how humanitarian imaginary is integral to the production of the Global South and to our perceptions of (the needs of) poor countries and vulnerable peoples, this course critically examines the role of communication in humanitarian contexts—not merely as a tool, but as constitutive of humanitarian action itself. Students will explore how media, NGOs, governments, and corporations—particularly in the Global North—construct and circulate discourses about crisis, suffering, inequality, injustice and intervention. These representations shape not only public perceptions but also policies, practices, and the humanitarian imaginary that frames the Global South.

Key Questions include:

• How is suffering mediated and communicated?

• What narratives dominate humanitarian storytelling, and whose voices are excluded?

• How can we amplify the voices of the most vulnerable, and how can we create an architecture of listening so that these voices can be heard?

• How do media representations construct symbolic and material borders?

• What stories do we tell - and which ones do we silence - about those who move, those who stay, and those who seek to regulate human mobility?

• What ethical, political, and epistemological challenges arise in communicating global crises?

A special focus is dedicated to the mediated performances that contribute to create the spectacle of the humanitarian border, which is physically and simbolically enacted by the different actors involved in contemporary management of migration, and strictly related with climate mobilities regimes.

Examining humanitarian communication through various forms of aesthetic activism - documentary, photojournalism, performing arts, festivals - the course invites students to explore how the intertwined challenges of climate change and human (im)mobilities are being narrated, governed, and resisted.

Finally, this course reflects on how race, class, and gender intersect with narratives on displacement and environmental crisis and how we can create new imaginaries grounded in justice, care, and planetary belonging.

Readings/Bibliography

• Calhoun Craig (2008): The Imperative to Reduce Suffering: Charity, Progress, and Emergencies in the Field of Humanitarian Action. In: Barnett, Michael/Weiss, Thomas George (eds.):Humanitarianism in Question. Politics, Power, Ethics. Ithaca: Cornell University, 73-97.

• Chouliaraki Lilie (2012): The Ironic Spectator. Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism. Cambridge: Polity Press (Chapters 1 and 2).

• Fassin Didier (2007): Humanitarianism as a Politics of Life. In: Public Culture, 19 (3), 499-520.

• Giacomelli Elena, Pierluigi Musarò (2025), Climate Mobility Justice: Narratives and Visual Politics of the Panicocene, Palgrave Macmillan, UK: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-07907-7

• Higuchi Naoto and Inaba Nanako (2025), How Kurds Became a Target of Organized Hate in Japan: https://www.csohate.org/2025/12/23/anti-kurd-hate-in-japan/

• Musarò Pierluigi (2019), Aware Migrants: The role of information campaigns in the management of migration, European Journal of Communication, 34, pp. 629 – 640.

• Musarò Pierluigi, Moralli Melissa, Parmiggiani Paola (2019), Borders Kill. Tania Bruguera’s Referendum as an Artistic Strategy of Political Participation, «JOURNAL OF MEDITERRANEAN KNOWLEDGE», 4(2), pp. 137 – 160

• Dahl Nielsen S., Marsa Meskimmon M., Möntmann N., Musarò P., Papastergiadis N., Ring Petersen A. (2026), Writing Together in the Stoa: Nonviolence, Art and Becoming with Many, Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence

• Salih R., On Reversing Reality. The Cunning of Impartiality on Gaza, Public Anthropologist 7 (2025) 244–261

• Mbembe, A. (2000): The universal right to breathe, Critical Inquiry. Available at: https://critinq.wordpress.com/2020/04/13/the-universal-right-to-breathe/

In preparation of the exam please read the:

- Loughnan Claire and Murray Philomena, ‘Combatting Corrosive Narratives about Refugees’, CONREP Policy Report, July 2022 > https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/4231587/CONREP-Policy-Report-3_Narrative_Loughnan-and-Murray_final.pdf

- Connecting Climate Justice & Migrant Justice: A Guide to Countering Dangerous Narratives, Brief guide available at: https://www.jcwi.org.uk/communicating-migrant-justice-a-guide-to-countering-dangerous-narratives

Take these as guides to frame your group analysis, you do not need to follow it closely.

- What policy communication works for migration? Using values to depolarise: https://www.euneighbours.eu/sites/default/files/publications/2020-08/EMM4_OPAM__3rd_chapter_Using_values_to_depolarise.pdf

- https://framingclimatejustice.org/

Further readings and references (book chapters, articles, papers, documents, video) will be provided during the course.

Teaching methods

The course is based on lectures, seminars by invited experts, and students-led seminars (group presentations). Each week includes a seminar (lecture + collective discussion), assigned readings, and a visual case study or media analysis. Group assignments will be planned as part of the final evaluation.

Assessment methods

Attending students’ peformance will be assessed through (1) one individual short essay, (2) one group assignment and (3) a final written exam.

Please read the Syllabus carefully; it will be presented by the professor during the first week and is included in the course materials (Teaching resources on Virtuale). In general, a short essay will be on a focused topic of students’ choice, drawing on research and careful analysis of select readings for the class.

The final exam will include a list of 5 open-ended questions on the topics of the lectures and the reading list. Each question will be given a score from 0 (missing answer) to 6 (=A, excellent answer). The assessment is based on the number of answers, the ability to use the correct terminology, the reference to the appropriate concepts and theories, the identification of critical issues, the clarity and soundness of the argumentation.

For the assignments - presentations in small groups (3-4 persons per group) - students are expected to analyse the communicative practices of artists or activists using guidelines that will be introduced in class. The assignments will be assessed considering the originality of the work, the ability to refer to the appropriate theories and concepts, the use of the correct terminology, the interpretation of the data, the quality of the presentation, and the clarity of the argumentation.

For those students who did not attend the course, or do not pass the exam, or wish to improve their score, it is MANDATORY to write a short article and a paper before the oral exam (see info below).

ASSESSMENT METHOD AND CRITERIA

Short Essay: 20% > 1500–2000 words, on a topic of choice using course theories and readings.

Active participation and group presentation: 30% > Collaborative analysis of media campaigns, activist activities, artistic performance, or other communication tools (creative formats encouraged).

Final exam: 50% > In-class written exam with 5 open-ended questions based on readings and lectures.

To pass the course you must pass ALL assessments.

To register the final grade is necessary that you enrol in the official dates in the website Almaesami (https://almaesami.unibo.it/almaesami/welcome.htm).

Alternative Exam Option for non-attending students: short essay of 1500 words + 5000 word paper with references to all course readings + oral exam on the readings. Students have to deliver article and paper by email at least 2 weeks before the data of the oral exam and then they will discuss it (and the program) during the exam. It is not possible to do the oral exam if the papers are not delivered before.

For more information on this option send an email to the professor.

Teaching tools

Active participation in class is a crucial part of your learning. Through news articles, videos, films and documentaries, web sites, or readings you will help the teacher to stimulate discussion during the class.

Students with specific learning difficulties (SLD) or temporary or permanent disabilities: please contact the relevant University office in good time (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/it): the office will be responsible for proposing any necessary adjustments to the students concerned; these must, however, be submitted for approval by the course instructor at least 15 days in advance, who will assess their appropriateness, taking into account the course’s learning objectives.

AI can be a useful tool to support independent study through in-depth analysis, summaries, and self-assessment exercises. As regards assessment, the exam consists of a section that may (where appropriate) involve the use of AI (problem-solving, content generation) and a compulsory section on critical analysis.
With regard to assessment, the use of smartphones, tablets and AI is prohibited during in-person examinations. Any such use constitutes a breach of academic integrity.

Office hours

See the website of Pierluigi Musarò