37623 - Media Reception and Consumption (1) (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

Students will be able to:

1. Explain the role of the audience in the communication process.

2. Outline differing theoretical approaches to the study of audiences and explain certain types of analytic frameworks available for the critical investigation of audiences and audience/text relationships.

3. Explain the differences between quantitative and qualitative audience measurements.

4. Describe various relationships that can occur between text/s and audiences.

Course contents

The aim of the course is to provide every student with a set of theoretical knowledge in order to analyze the relationship between audiovisual texts and the dynamics of their consumption/reception. Through notions derived from the fields of cultural studies and reception theory the course aims to offer tools for reading images in context.

The course in 2016-17 is divided into three parts.

The first will offer a general overview on audience studies, reception studies and cultural studies (on film and media).

In the second part the attention will fall on the links between audience studies and digital culture and digital technologies.

In the third part will be proposed a study on the relationship between reception studies, celebrity studies and theories of film acting. In particular will be considered theories that bind the visibility/recognizability of stardom in cinema to the inferences performed by film viewers. Will then be taken into account two case studies: 1) the actors of the so-called "italian quality cinema" (especially Margherita Buy and Toni Servillo); 2) the celebrity "without quality" (like Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Fabrizio Corona etc.).

Readings/Bibliography

A) Claudio Bisoni,"Non faccio questo mestiere mettendomi sul mercato come una merce": note sull'attore cinematografico italiano e il suo contributo all'identità del cinema di interesse culturale" , in "Communicazioni sociali", forthcoming in october/november 2016.

b) Toni Servillo. Oltre l'attore, edited by R. De Gaetano, B. Roberti, Rome: Donzelli, 2015.

Please note: students are kindly requested to procure the books and articles mentioned in advance. Not all the volumes indicated are easily available.

(c) the following articles in English taken from the magazine "Participations. Journal of Audience & Reception Studies" (Downloadable all online for free from the website of the magazine: Http://www.participations.org/index.htm):

- Jonathan Gray & Jason Mittell, speculation on the spoilers: Lost Fandom, Narrative Consumption and Rethinking Textuality, "Particip@tions" Volume 4, Issue 1 (May 2007)

- Ian Huffer, ' I wanted to be a Rocky, but I also wanted to be his wife!": Heterosexuality and the (re)construction of gender in Female Audiences Film Consumption of Sylvester Stallone, "Particip@tions", Volume 4, Issue 2 (November 2007)

- Peter Krämer. "Dear Mr. Kubrick": Audience Responses to 2001: A Space Odyssey in the late 1960s, "Particip@tion", Volume 6, Issue 2 (November 2009)

- Daniela Treveri-Gennari, Catherine OR THE Rawe, Danielle Hipkins, In Search of Italian Cinema audiences in the 1940s and 1950s: Gender, Genre and National Identity, "Particip@tion", Volume 8, Issue 2 (November 2011)

- Tom Phillips, When Film Fans Become Fans Family: Kevin Smith Fandom and communal experience, "Particip@tion", Volume 8, Issue 2 (November 2011)

- Emma Pett, 'Hey! Hey! I've seen this one, I've seen this one. It's a classic': Nostalgia, repeat viewing and cult performance in Back to the future, "Particip@tion", Volume 8, Issue 2 (November 2011), Volume 10, Issue 1, May 2013.

- Lisa Marx, making cinephiles: An ethnographic study of socialization audience, "Particip@tion", Volume 11, Issue 1, May 2014.

- Carrie Lynn D. Reinhard, Kevin Miller, Man watching Sex and the City, My Little Pony and Oklahoma: The Interpretation of Gender legal in the reception of Cross-gendered Media Products, "Particip@tion", Volume 12, Issue 1, May 2015.

- Sarah Ralph Martin Markers, what a performance! Exploring audiences ' responses to film acting, "Particip@tions", volume 12, Issue 1, May 2015.

d) Non attending students have to integrate the program with the study of:

- Mariagrazia Fanchi, L'audience, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2014.

e) Filmography.The filmography is an integral part of the course. All students are required to know in detail the films that compose it, collecting information about them, both via web and via bibliographic consultation made in autonomy. The film will be all made available at the library of the Department of Arts, Via Barberia 4.

Filmography:

Una vita tranquilla, directed by Claudio Cupellini (2010)

Gorbaciof, directed by Stefano Incerti (2010)

Viva la libertà, directed by Roberto Andò (2013)

La grande bellezza, directed by Paolo Sorrentino (2013)

Le fate ignoranti, directed by Ferzan Özpetek (2001)

I giorni dell'abbandono, directed by Roberto Faenza (2005)

Lo spazio bianco, directed by Francesca Comencini (2009)

Genitori & figli - Agitare bene prima dell'uso, directed by regia di Giovanni Veronesi (2010).

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons with comment and analysis of films, essays and articles.

Assessment methods

The oral serves to verify that the student has been achieved the following learning objectives:

- detailed knowledge of the evolution of reception studies and audience studies over the last 30 years.

- ability to expose in detail the articles and books listed in the bibliography.

Teaching tools

Office hours

See the website of Claudio Bisoni