72522 - Cultures of Entertainment (1) (LM)

Academic Year 2018/2019

Learning outcomes

The course aims to introduce students to the complexity of entertainment and to its manifold implications, which include the definition of consumption habits of individuals and (more or less homogeneous) groups of individuals, also in relation to different cultures of taste. In addition the student acquires skills regarding modeling analysis techniques applicable to the entertainment field.

Course contents

I part

– Definition of entertainment

– Entertainment and leisure in Europe and in the USA

– History and development of entertainment practices

– Film, radio, television

– Gamification processes: from theme parks to videogames

– Mixed reality: from tourism to pervasive architectures

II part

- Narrative ecosystems: definitions and properties

- Evolutionary, evaluative and forecasting models

- Modeling of cultural products

- Exercises

Readings/Bibliography

- Enrico Menduni, Entertainment, il Mulino, Bologna 2013

- Guglielmo Pescatore, Ecosistemi narrativi, Carocci, 2018

- additional materials on the IOL platform (accessible through the link "Activities and contents in e-learning" in the teaching sheet on the right).

Students wishing to attend the course must be present from the first lesson. In addition, during the course they will not be able to do more than two absences.


Teaching methods

Frontal instruction with support materials.

In order to better organize the teaching of the course students will be invited to a meeting to present methods and tools. This meeting will be held on March 25, 2019, at 16.00, Aula Dioniso. Students who wish to participate actively in the course and be considered attending students must be present at the meeting. During the lessons the presences will be recorded, to be considered attending a maximum of 2 absences is admitted.

It is also possible to follow the lessons in streaming through the links on the IOL teaching platform. The attendance and the active participation during the course, measured by a dedicated app (which will be discussed during the presentation meeting), will contribute to the determination of the final grade in measure of 3 points.

The effective start of the course will be March 27, 2019 at 16.00.


Assessment methods

The final exam aims to evaluate the achievement of the educational purposes pointed out in the program. To this end, the student is required to write a paper which will be subsequently discussed during the oral exam. The topic of the paper must be agreed upon with the professor preferably through the appropriate forum on the e-learning platform or during office hours and it should preferably take into consideration a case study, which will be analysed through the anlytical tools and knowledge provided during the course. The paper must not exceed 10 sheets (1 sheet = 2000 characters), bibliography excluded. It must be delivered exclusively in digital form through the appropriate section that will be available on the IOL platform), at least one week before the oral exam.

The paper will then be discussed during the exam, which will also verify the competences on the course themes and textbooks. The final grade will evaluate the paper (50%), the knowledge and understanding of the exam bibliography (50%) and, for attending students, the classroom activity (max 3 points to be added to the exam grade).

All of the students must sign up to the exam through AlmaEsami; it won't be possible to test students who can't sign up because of delays in the submission of the study plan, in the tax payments, etc. The exam will take place in equipped classrooms; in order to optimize their use, students who won't be able to take the exam must sign off the list. It is mandatory to bring a valid photo ID the day of the exam, along with the student's Unibo credentials.


Teaching tools

A prezi presentation will be made available to students at the end of every class.

Audiovisual material will be shown to support the case studies.

Streaming video and study material related to each lesson through the IOL platform.

Interaction in the classroom and attendance detection through Acadly app.

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Office hours

See the website of Guglielmo Pescatore