85604 - Media and Security

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide theoretical and practical tools for designing security policies, focusing on the potential of media to intervene in risk and emergency situations, with a specific attention to the representation of the victims. At the end of the course the student will be able to understand how people interpret risks; the role of the media in creating feelings of both personal and collective insecurity; to carry out critical analysis of the cultural construction of problems relating to public order and crime; to understand the complex relationships between crime, victim and offender, by exploring the potential that new media offer for risk reduction and emergency interventions.

Course contents

This course aims to explore the role of the media in creating feelings of both personal and collective insecurity in order to understand how people interpret risks. Focusing on the conceptual link between justice and social control and the media representation of the victims, the course introduces the student to the practical components and tools for helping shaping policies.

Focusing on the relationship between security and fear in the contemporary media landscape, this course aims to encourage students to think sociologically about a range of issues and “social problems” related to media representations of suffering and violence. It also serves as an introduction to some important themes and issues within the processes of spectacularization of the news (with particular reference to the representation of the ‘stranger’ and the ‘victim’) and how the media are functional to the creation of consent or social control.

Framed in the broadest paradigm of surveillance capitalism, the course explores the relationship between security and fear as the main emotion / narrative related to public life. By addressing social, political and economic issues such as the future of Europe, the welfare state, international migration and border control, war scenarios or Islamic matrix terrorism, the course seeks to understand how media activate latent functions that amplify the effect of emotion itself. It also examines how ideas, national interests, and policy processes shape inter-national and local security decision making.

Finally, through seminars held by invited experts, the course aims to explore the potential that new media offer for risk reduction and emergency interventions.

Readings/Bibliography

Bauman Z. (2009), Paura liquida, Laterza, Bari (sections).

Castel R. (2011), L'insicurezza sociale. Che significa essere protetti?, Einaudi, Torino (sections)

Han B.-C. (2016), Psicopolitica: il Neoliberismo e le Nuove Tecniche del Potere, Nottetempo (sections).

Mesnard P. (2004), Attualità della vittima. La rappresentazione umanitaria della sofferenza, Ombre Corte, Verona.

Cahoun C. (2004), A World of Emergencies: Fear, Intervention, and the Limits of Cosmopolitan Order, Canadian Review of Sociology, 41/4, pp. 373–395

Maneri M. (2001), Il panico morale come dispositivo di trasformazione dell’insicurezza, Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia, n. 1, pp. 5-40.

Musarò P. (2016), Mare Nostrum: the visual politics of a military-humanitarian operation in the Mediterranean Sea, Media, Culture & Society, Vol.39(1), pp.11-28

Musarò P., Taxi o ambulanze del mare? Politiche dell’immagine nella crisi dei migranti nel Mediterraneo, con Paola Parmiggiani, in Fausto Colombo e Maria Francesca Murru (a cura di), Iconismo e potere. Politiche dell’immagine nell’era digitale, Problemi dell'Informazione – 1/2018, pp. 87-113

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

Teaching methods

A mix of lectures, seminars, collective discussion, student's presentations, documentaries and films. Most of the major points of the course are illustrated by case studies of analysis. Topical issues will also be explored

Assessment methods

Short Essay 20%

Active participation and discussions 10%

Group presentation 30%

Midterm and final exams: 40%

Participation: Since this is a seminar, active participation in class is a crucial part of your learning. Through news articles, videos, web sites, or readings you will help the teacher to stimulate discussion during the class.

Presentation: This is a research-based presentation – intended as a synthesis of both the literary and political materials we discuss during the course - that you (or your study group) will read or present to the class in whatever format you wish.

Midterm and final exams: a midterm and final in class exam in which the students are required to answer to some open questions. Further guidance will be given in class

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) .

Teaching tools

Papers, articles, films and documentaries, web sites.

Office hours

See the website of Pierluigi Musarò