10682 - Journalistic Communication

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student is familiar with the main production routines of news machine, specially referred to the development of daily press, the online journalism, the kind of work, the professional code of conduct and the business models. The student also is able to select the information in order to create news, paying attention to the most recent techniques of multimedia journalism.

Course contents

The aim of the course is to provide basics and tools essential to recognize and understand the different types of journalistic languages and underlying communicative pacts observable in different media (print, radio, television, web). The main production models linked to the information machine are therefore analyzed, with a view to outlining the framework of a modern journalism, able to deal with the profound changes in socio-cultural processes occurred in recent years.

Particular attention is driven to the role and function of journalists, to the genres of their work, to the techniques on how to write an article and make a headline, to the logic of newsworthiness, to deontology and professional ethics, to the comparative analysis of Italian and international media system, to the changes brought by digital to journalism.

Lessons are also focused to the theories of journalism and their historical evolution, from the dawn of the information age in the sixteenth century to the present day. Moreover, to the causes and effects of the media gridlock that results from the proliferation of players acting in the information market, exacerbated by the extraordinary spread of social networks, up to hypothesize the future developments of information.

Last but not least, the course analyzes the phenomenon of fake news, a very common word today to define false news or, more precisely, credible news. The kind that has multiplied and caught on in the media, enough to create a threat named disinformation or post-truth.

During the course, in november, professor Daniela Laganà holds the seminar: 'Online journalism from blogs to Instagram'.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Compulsory texts for exams:

1. Barbano A. (in collaboration with V. Sassu), Manual of Journalism, Laterza, 2012

2. Bergamini O., The democracy of the press - History of journalism, Laterza, 2013

3. Splendore S., Hybrid journalism. How the Italian journalistic culture changes, Carocci, 2017

 

Non-mandatory texts but highly recommended, especially for non-attending students:

• Allotti P., Fourth estate. Journalism and journalists in contemporary Italy, Carocci, 2017

• Di Marco V., Journalism lessons, Ugo Mursia Editore, 2015

• Mazzocco D., Online Journalism - Cross-media, blogging and social networks: the new digital information tools, Journalistic Documentation Center, 2018 (third edition)

• McIntyre L., Post-truth, UTET University, 2019

• Mezza M., Journalisms in the network. In order not to be subjects of Facebook and Google, Donzelli, 2015

 

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures alternate with exercises for the written exam, presentations of multimedia documents relating to the subject or testimonials brought to class by journalists and communication experts. Therefore, attendance is strongly recommended.

 

Assessment methods

The Journalistic Communication exam 2021/2022 consists in a written test and an interview on the three compulsory texts. Only those students, who will pass the written test, will be admitted to the oral part or in the same examination session (approximately two weeks later) or in the following ones. The students who won’t pass the written test, or reject its mark, should repeat the written test. Anyway, the students who will pass the written test but not the interview, will have to repeat only the oral part. This option is available also for those ones who refuse the final mark. The final mark will be a weighted average between the mark of the written test and that one of the oral exam.

The written test consists in writing an article with a proper headline concerning a current event chosen by the professor. Before the beginning of the test, the student will be received some news agency takes, there he/she will find all the information needed. So, it's a matter of selecting them, putting them in the right chronological order of importance and organizing them into an appropriately headlined article.

In order to be prepared for the written test, it’s strongly recommended to be well informed about the principal facts happened the days before the exam. It's also necessary a very good knowledge of newsworthiness criteria and the journalistic techniques (for article and headline), explained in class and in the textbooks. It's a three hour written exam. The use of dictionaries and compulsory texts is allowed.

The Erasmus students can do the written test in English or in Italian.

 

Teaching tools

The course takes advantage of the computer and multimedia tools available in the classrooms of the Department of Philosophy and Communication.

 

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Ropa