76784 - History and Analysis of Mass Communication (LM)

Learning outcomes

Aims of the course: the learner is able to analyze the language of several traditional mass media (newspapers, radio, movies, television) to digital ones. Moreover The student is able to grasp the relationship between journalistic communication and historical contexts.

Course contents

Prerequisite: knowledge of public debates and topical issues, interesting to understand, starting from the present, languages and ways in order to show news and contents.

The lessons will focus on the authors and key concepts related to the history of mass communications and on the forms of terrorism in the contemporary age seen as mechanisms of conditioning social and political life.

The course will have a laboratory trend and attending students will work on the development of analytical attitudes towards the media, with particular reference to literature as a form of communication. This theme is a gateway to the social history of knowledge that goes from entertainment to literature no - fiction that aims to present itself as a documentary work.

Readings/Bibliography

It is advisable to have theme basics already. It is recommended for both students and non-students, a preliminary reading: Marica Tolomelli, Sfera pubblica e comunicazioni di massa, Bologna, Archetipo libri, 2006. This book is not subject to examination, but provides many tools to understand the themes of the lessons and prepares to address the contents of the texts exam.

It is also suggested a knowledge, at least indicative, of leading scholars who have ventured on the themes of communication and the history of public opinion: Theodor Adorno, Pierre Bordieu, Manuel Castells, Umberto Eco, Siegfried Krakauer, Jurgen Habermas, Max Horkheimer, Peter Hugill, Harold Innis, Walter Lippmann, Niklas Luhmann, David Manning White, Marshall McLuhan, Elisabeth Noelle Neumann, Walter Ong, Peppino Ortoleva, Vance Packard.

There are two programs.

1) For not attending students the program consists of the following 4 books:

1) Benedetta Baldi (a cura di), Comunicare ad arte, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2020;

2) Comunicazione storica. Approcci interdisciplinari (a cura di Mirco Dondi e Simona Salustri), Bologna, Biblioteca Clueb (in corso di pubblicazione)

3) Mirco Dondi, L’eco del boato. Storia della strategia della tensione 1965 - 1974, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2015.

4) Parole chiave per i media studies (a cura di Laurie Ouellette e Jonathan Gray), Roma, Minimum fax, 2018.

 

2) ATTENDING STUDENTS

Among the works presented during the lessons, students will have to choose two to make two essays identifying a series of highlights:

- which narrative form does it propose? Within which literary vein can it be enclosed?

- How does an editorial success arise?

- What channels were used to disseminate the work?

- What was the feedback from critics and readers (fandom and online readership community)?

- There has been the transposition of the opera into a film or a TV series

On the basis of these indications, students will realize by 31 March 2021 two essays (one on an Italian case, one on a foreign case) each of which must not exceed 20,000 characters spaces included.

The work will have to end with an accurate bibliography that collects the reviews around the work and the websites that talk about it.

List of possible works to choose for the essays:

Giuseppe Catozzella, Non dirmi che hai paura, Milano, Feltrinelli, 2014.

Oriana Fallaci, Un uomo, Milano, Rizzoli, 1979.

David Foster Wallace, Brevi interviste con uomini schifosi, Torino, Einaudi, 2007.

Anabel Hernández, La terra dei narcos: inchiesta sui signori della droga, Milano, Mondadori, 2014.

Primo Levi, Se questo è un uomo, Torino, Einaudi, 2014 (1°. ed. 1947)

Valérie Massonneau Trierweiler, Grazie per questo momento, Milano, Corbaccio, 2014.

David Quammen, Spillover. L’evoluzione delle pandemie, Milano, Adelphi, 2014

Roberto Saviano, Gomorra, Milano, Mondadori, 2006.

Antonio Scurati, M. Il figlio del secolo, Milano, Bompiani, 2018.

Winfried Sebald, Austerlitz, Milano, Adelphi, 2002

David Shields, Fame di realtà, Roma, Fazi, 2010.

 

 

The attending students will support a written pre-appello, with 14 multiple choice questions, around the middle of May on the topics covered in class. Included are the essays that will be collected in a single file and distributed to students.
Students will be considered attending if, in addition to their constant presence in class, they have written within the time set the two essays and have passed the pre-appello on the topics addressed in class.

In the following dates dedicated to official appeals, those attending will complete the exam by choosing two texts among the four scheduled.

 

Assessment methods

Written exam for everyone.

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons and made one of the required papers are considered to be attending.


Multiple choice questions are processed for each book in the program.

.........

For example:

Quali caratteristiche presenta la televisione italiana delle origini? A) E' a colori; B) Si ispira alla BBC per quanto riguarda i principi base: intrattenere, informare, educare; C) I telegiornali sono trasmessi ogni due ore; D) E' sotto stretto controllo governativo

............

The evaluation starts from 30:

The first error is cleared, a point is removed from the second error.

If the student indicates, within a question, a number of answers lower than those expected, at the third answer omission the evaluation will be penalized by one point.

In any case, to pass the exam, it is necessary to answer correctly at least half of the questions for each text in the program.

Office hours

See the website of Mirco Dondi