92770 - Media, Borders and Human Rights

Learning outcomes

Through the critical review of interdisciplinary theories on media and borders the students will be able to discuss both the relationship between media narratives, borders and human rights, and to reflect on the possibilities of challenging and de-constructing these same narratives.

Course contents

This seminar focusses on how borders and associated institutional practices have moved to the center of political space and in which ways they are at the origin of conflicts, migrations, suffering.

Symbolically representing a function and an efficacy that in reality they do not exercise, the control of the borders and the walls that often delimit them, appear as a theatrical and spectacular performance of power. A performance that reflects the productive power of the border, or the strategic role it plays as fabrica mundi, its ability to shape the world. The border can be understood as a social fact with a spatial dimension that we tend to consider natural. It is instead a complex social institution, marked by the tension between strengthening and crossing practices. A dispositif that conditions the lives of millions of men and women who, on the move or sedentary, carry the boundaries on themselves.

The course assumes that the border is a dispositif that materializes primarily through the media: from the lines of the geographical map that traps the subjects in the spatial divisions created by the States, up to the visual narratives that make spectacular the security and humanitarian interventions. For example, the representation strategies and discursive practices enacted by a wide range of state and non-state actors present the Mediterranean Sea as the setting of a perpetual emergency. European and national political agencies, military authorities, humanitarian organizations, and activists, have been representing migrants crossing borders as a significant problem to be managed in terms of a wider social, cultural and political “crisis”. Far outstripping any real crisis is the public anxiety about migration and asylum-seeking in Europe, which in part has grown due to the media coverage of the phenomenon as well as the rhetoric of politicians, who describe Europe as being besieged by people fleeing conflict or seeking a better life.

Not considering that human mobility plays an important role in the history of humanity, the strategies of representation and the discursive practices conveyed by the media as wella as the political discourses describe migration as an exceptional phenomenon that must be managed in terms of "crisis". The result is an emergency frame that amplifies the negative image of the ‘alien’ while legitimizing hate speech and discrimination.

Moving from this theoretical framework, the course - which will alternate ex-cathedra lessons with seminars by non academic experts - aims to address the relationship between borders and human rights, with particular reference to the media representations of the border and the possibilities of de-constructing these same narratives.

Through analytical schemes of sociology, but with an interdisciplinary approach ranging from geography to anthropology, from border studies to media studies, the course will analyze how the media contribute to shape contemporary borders and to influence the status of people crossing them.

More specifically, highlighting how the media regulate our perception of the border according to specific aesthetic and cognitive frames, will explore the Mediterranean as a border and boundary, not only physical, but also narrated, mediated, spectacularized. Moving from the events that have affected the Mediterranean in recent years, his classes will focus on the narration, policies and practices related to the relationship between border management and respect for human rights. More specifically, he will explore the following questions: What is a border? How does its representation influence the construction of us and of the other? What is the relationship between physical and symbolic bordering and respect for human rights? How the media represent what happens across the borders? Which symbolic spaces and social practices can challenge the mainstream representations in order to promote a different imaginary that fosters our intercultural coexistence?

Readings/Bibliography

The main references for the course will be provided by the following books and articles:

Giordana E. (a cura di), Sconfinate. Terre di Confine e Storie di Frontiera, Rosenberg & Sellier, Torino, 2018 (solo i saggi di Mezzadra: pp. 5-8; Salerno: pp. 53-60; Meriggi: 127-134; Musarò: 147-160).

Musarò P. e Parmiggiani P., Taxi o ambulanze del mare? Politiche dell’immagine nella crisi dei migranti nel Mediterraneo, in Problemi dell'Informazione – 1/2018, pp. 87-113, download in pdf: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1445/89617 .

Wihtol de Wenden C., Il diritto di migrare, Ediesse, Roma 2015.

 

Other texts that will be discussed in class include:

Andersson R., Illegality, Inc. Clandestine Migration and the business of bordering Europe, University of California press, Oakland, 2014.

Bauman Z., Stranieri alle porte, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2016.

Balibar É., Noi, cittadini d’Europa? Le frontiere, lo stato, il popolo, Manifesto Libri, Roma, 2004.

Brown W., Stati murati, sovranità in declino, Laterza, Roma-Bari, 2013.

Cuttitta P., Lo spettacolo del confine, Mimesis, Milano-Udine, 2012.

Leogrande A., La frontiera, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2015

Mezzadra S., Nelson B., Confini e frontiere. La moltiplicazione del lavoro nel mondo globale, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2013.

Musarò P, European borderscapes. The management of migration between care and control, in Lawrence M. and Tavernor R. (ed.), Global Humanitarianism and Media Culture, Manchester University Press, 2018, pp. 145-166 (available in IOL).

Teaching methods

Lectures and discussion in class. At the beginning of the course a syllabus will be distributed: for each week specific readings will be suggested, to be discussed in class. Students are encouraged to present in class.

Assessment methods

Since this is a seminar, active participation in class is a crucial part of your learning.

Students will write a final paper on a topic agreed with the teacher. The bibliography for the paper will be discussed with the teacher and will be based on the references listed in the reading list and/or additional texts proposed by students. Personal engagement and initiative in proposing and articulating themes for discussion will be appreciated and positively evaluated.

Further guidance will be given in class.

Teaching tools

Readings may be complemented with other sources, such as videos and images. Guest lecturers will be invited.

Office hours

See the website of Pierluigi Musarò