The course aims to provide students with the fundamental tools to know and do news journalism today, from the role of the reporter to the contribution to investigations, up to research tools. Trainees will then be able to
- Learn how to construct an investigative enquiry
- Learning methods for researching sources, access to databases, relations with press offices, new media resources
- Compare the right and duty of freedom of information in Italy and in the major western countries
- Equip themselves with fact-checking tools in the age of disinformation and post-truths
- Challenge themselves with classroom exercises
- Meet reporters specialising in news (crime, legal, pink, sports, the evolution of reporting in emergencies, from terrorism to health and environmental crises).
- Learn how to construct an investigative enquiry
- Learning methods for researching sources, access to databases, relations with press offices, new media resources
- Compare the right and duty of freedom of information in Italy and in the major western countries
- Equip themselves with fact-checking tools in the age of disinformation and post-truths
- Challenge themselves with classroom exercises
- Meet reporters specialising in news (crime, legal, pink, sports, the evolution of reporting in emergencies, from terrorism to health and environmental crises).
teacher profile teaching materials
Stories of enquiries and reporters in Italy and abroad will be retraced, exploring the role of the investigative journalist today between limits, threats and new opportunities; the selection of sources; interlocutors and research tools on the ground and online, Italian and EU databases, rights of access to institutional data (Foia and similar).
We will discuss resources from datajournalism, social media, and the implications of artificial intelligence on content production and consumption, between the digital revolution and the crisis of journalism.
A focus will be devoted to the anomalous space reserved for news in Italian news, the function of these editorial choices, between audience and censorship, and the comparison with the choices and consumption of information in other advanced democracies. We will also analyse investigative journalism and big news in the perspective of our republican history: from the role of the mafias to the strategy of tension and the 'Italian mysteries', with the emphasis on memory between newsroom and civil conscience.
Elements will be provided on the communication of public institutions, major private companies and advertisers, the role of press offices, corporate communication and crisis management, up to indirect lobbying.
The interaction of news with religious denominations (from Vatican information to relations with the Jewish community, Islamic associations and other cults) will be examined, as well as the issue of secularism.
The evolution of the right to report news will be retraced: Italian deontological documents (minors, hate speech, migration, feminicides, gender equality) and EU regulations, protection of sources and whistleblowing, privacy and information rights, publication of wiretaps and press offences, threats to reporters, as well as some of the tools for verifying and debunking news, to test conspiracy and disinformation online.
The workshop will have the students directly measure themselves with reconstruction of case studies and with the writing of texts intended for the various media: from the big news to the evolution of breaking news (environmental emergencies, health, terrorism, climate change), up to current affairs pages (mafias, crime, white and constructive journalism, judicial, gossip, sport), examining styles, languages and stereotypes.
Randall, David, The Universal Journalist. London: Plutopress 2000
2. CRIME NEWS / IN THIS SECTION A VOLUME TO BE CHOSEN FROM:
(edited by Davide Bagnoli), La cronaca nera in Italia. Il perché della sua spettacolarizzazione, Temperino Rosso-Edizioni Fortini, Brescia 2016
Francesca Rizzuto, La società dell'orrore. Terrorism and communication in the age of emotional journalism, Pisa University Press 2018 (also available in e-book, e.g. in the Libraries of Rome network https://www.bibliotechediroma.it/opac/resource/la-societa-dellorrore-terrorismo-e-comunicazione-nellera-del-giornalismo-emotivo/ML_0000150254086?tabDoc=tabcata )
3. THE ITALIAN EXCEPTION / IN THIS SECTION ONE TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES:
Enrico Deaglio, Il raccolto rosso 1982-2010, Il Saggiatore, Milan 2010
Enrico Deaglio, La bomba. 50 anni da piazza Fontana, Feltrinelli 2019
Rita Di Giovacchino, Il libro nero della Prima Repubblica, Fazi editore, Rome 2005
Giovanni Vignali, L'uomo nero e le stragi, Paper First, Rome 2021
Giovanni Fasanella-José Cereghino, Le menti del doppio Stato, Chiarelettere, Rome 2020
Giovanni Tizian, Il silenzio. Italy 1992-2022, Laterza, Bari 2022
4. SOCIAL HISTOTY / IN THIS SECTION ONE TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES:
Paul Ginsborg, Italy and its discontents : family, civil society, state, 1980-2001, New York : Palgrave/Macmillan., 2003
Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth , Boston: The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series., 2018
Vanni Codeluppi, La vetrinizzazione sociale. Il processo di spettacolarizzazione degli individui e della società, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2007
Byung-Chul Han, The Expulsion of the Other: Society, Perception and Communication today, Cambridge: Polity Press., 2018
Byung-Chul Han, Infocracy: Digitization and the Crisis of Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022
Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, Stanford University Press, 2015
5. MEDIA /
IN THIS SECTION ONE TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING PAPERS OR BOOKS:
Brittany Kaiser, Targeted: The Cambridge Analityca Whistleblower’s Inside Story of how Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and how it Can Happen Again, New York: Harper Collins Publishers., 2019
Christian Salmon, Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind, New York: Verso., 2017
Christian Salmon, La tyrannie des bouffons. Sur le pouvoir grotesque, ed. Les liens que libèrent, Paris 2020
Angelo Agostini, Giornalismi. Media e giornalisti in Italia, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012
Caterina Malavenda, Le regole dei giornalisti, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012
6. IDEAS / IN THIS SECTION ONE OF YOUR CHOICE FROM THE FOLLOWING PAPERS OR VOLUMES:
Lilian Thuram, White Thinking: Behind The Mask of Racial Identity, London: Hero Publishers c/o University of Buckingham., 2021
F. Gatti, Bilal. Il mio viaggio clandestino nel mercato dei nuovi schiavi, Milano, 2007
Luciano Canfora, Fermare l’odio, Laterza, Bari 2019
Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Establishes Knowledge and Why it Matters, Oxford University Press., 2018
Anna Foa, Gli ebrei in Italia. I primi 2000 anni, Laterza, Bari 2022
Samir Kassir, Being Arab, London-New York City: Verso Books., 2006
François Jullien, On the Universal: The Uniform, the Common and Dialogue between Cultures, Polity Publisher, University of Cambridge, 2016
François Jullien, A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking, University of Hawaii, 2004
7. ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM /
Naomi Oreskes-Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt, London: Bloomsbury Press., 2010
8. ETHICAL CHARTERS
Testo Unico dei doveri del giornalista: https://www.odg.it/testo-unico-dei-doveri-del-giornalista/24288
Il Manifesto di Venezia: come raccontare il femminicidio: https://www.sindacatogiornalistiveneto.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MANIFESTO-DI-VENEZIA.pdf
9. METHODS OF READING FACTS
Some novels by Leonardo Sciascia and a short essay by Marc Bloch will be read during the workshop:
Leonardo Sciascia, Opere 1971-1983, Bompiani, Milano 1989 (from this book we will read La scomparsa di Majorana, Il teatro della memoria, I pugnalatori)
Leonardo Sciascia, To Each Its Own, NYRB Classics, 2000
Leonardo Sciascia, The Moro Affair, NYRB Classics, 2004
Leonardo Sciascia, Equal Danger, NYRB Classics,
Leonardo Sciascia, The Day of the Owl, NYRB, 2003
Marc Bloch, Reflections of a Historian on the False News of the War (available on line: https://www.miwsr.com/2013/downloads/2013-051.pdf and among the course materials on Moodle or Teams)
Programme
The course aims to examine the history and present of news journalism today, its role in shaping public opinion, against the backdrop of a publishing market in crisis, more exposed to the pressures of audience and journalistic storytelling, in the name of infotainment.Stories of enquiries and reporters in Italy and abroad will be retraced, exploring the role of the investigative journalist today between limits, threats and new opportunities; the selection of sources; interlocutors and research tools on the ground and online, Italian and EU databases, rights of access to institutional data (Foia and similar).
We will discuss resources from datajournalism, social media, and the implications of artificial intelligence on content production and consumption, between the digital revolution and the crisis of journalism.
A focus will be devoted to the anomalous space reserved for news in Italian news, the function of these editorial choices, between audience and censorship, and the comparison with the choices and consumption of information in other advanced democracies. We will also analyse investigative journalism and big news in the perspective of our republican history: from the role of the mafias to the strategy of tension and the 'Italian mysteries', with the emphasis on memory between newsroom and civil conscience.
Elements will be provided on the communication of public institutions, major private companies and advertisers, the role of press offices, corporate communication and crisis management, up to indirect lobbying.
The interaction of news with religious denominations (from Vatican information to relations with the Jewish community, Islamic associations and other cults) will be examined, as well as the issue of secularism.
The evolution of the right to report news will be retraced: Italian deontological documents (minors, hate speech, migration, feminicides, gender equality) and EU regulations, protection of sources and whistleblowing, privacy and information rights, publication of wiretaps and press offences, threats to reporters, as well as some of the tools for verifying and debunking news, to test conspiracy and disinformation online.
The workshop will have the students directly measure themselves with reconstruction of case studies and with the writing of texts intended for the various media: from the big news to the evolution of breaking news (environmental emergencies, health, terrorism, climate change), up to current affairs pages (mafias, crime, white and constructive journalism, judicial, gossip, sport), examining styles, languages and stereotypes.
Core Documentation
1. TOOLS FOR THE REPORTERRandall, David, The Universal Journalist. London: Plutopress 2000
2. CRIME NEWS / IN THIS SECTION A VOLUME TO BE CHOSEN FROM:
(edited by Davide Bagnoli), La cronaca nera in Italia. Il perché della sua spettacolarizzazione, Temperino Rosso-Edizioni Fortini, Brescia 2016
Francesca Rizzuto, La società dell'orrore. Terrorism and communication in the age of emotional journalism, Pisa University Press 2018 (also available in e-book, e.g. in the Libraries of Rome network https://www.bibliotechediroma.it/opac/resource/la-societa-dellorrore-terrorismo-e-comunicazione-nellera-del-giornalismo-emotivo/ML_0000150254086?tabDoc=tabcata )
3. THE ITALIAN EXCEPTION / IN THIS SECTION ONE TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES:
Enrico Deaglio, Il raccolto rosso 1982-2010, Il Saggiatore, Milan 2010
Enrico Deaglio, La bomba. 50 anni da piazza Fontana, Feltrinelli 2019
Rita Di Giovacchino, Il libro nero della Prima Repubblica, Fazi editore, Rome 2005
Giovanni Vignali, L'uomo nero e le stragi, Paper First, Rome 2021
Giovanni Fasanella-José Cereghino, Le menti del doppio Stato, Chiarelettere, Rome 2020
Giovanni Tizian, Il silenzio. Italy 1992-2022, Laterza, Bari 2022
4. SOCIAL HISTOTY / IN THIS SECTION ONE TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES:
Paul Ginsborg, Italy and its discontents : family, civil society, state, 1980-2001, New York : Palgrave/Macmillan., 2003
Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth , Boston: The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series., 2018
Vanni Codeluppi, La vetrinizzazione sociale. Il processo di spettacolarizzazione degli individui e della società, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2007
Byung-Chul Han, The Expulsion of the Other: Society, Perception and Communication today, Cambridge: Polity Press., 2018
Byung-Chul Han, Infocracy: Digitization and the Crisis of Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022
Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, Stanford University Press, 2015
5. MEDIA /
IN THIS SECTION ONE TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING PAPERS OR BOOKS:
Brittany Kaiser, Targeted: The Cambridge Analityca Whistleblower’s Inside Story of how Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and how it Can Happen Again, New York: Harper Collins Publishers., 2019
Christian Salmon, Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind, New York: Verso., 2017
Christian Salmon, La tyrannie des bouffons. Sur le pouvoir grotesque, ed. Les liens que libèrent, Paris 2020
Angelo Agostini, Giornalismi. Media e giornalisti in Italia, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012
Caterina Malavenda, Le regole dei giornalisti, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012
6. IDEAS / IN THIS SECTION ONE OF YOUR CHOICE FROM THE FOLLOWING PAPERS OR VOLUMES:
Lilian Thuram, White Thinking: Behind The Mask of Racial Identity, London: Hero Publishers c/o University of Buckingham., 2021
F. Gatti, Bilal. Il mio viaggio clandestino nel mercato dei nuovi schiavi, Milano, 2007
Luciano Canfora, Fermare l’odio, Laterza, Bari 2019
Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Establishes Knowledge and Why it Matters, Oxford University Press., 2018
Anna Foa, Gli ebrei in Italia. I primi 2000 anni, Laterza, Bari 2022
Samir Kassir, Being Arab, London-New York City: Verso Books., 2006
François Jullien, On the Universal: The Uniform, the Common and Dialogue between Cultures, Polity Publisher, University of Cambridge, 2016
François Jullien, A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking, University of Hawaii, 2004
7. ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM /
Naomi Oreskes-Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt, London: Bloomsbury Press., 2010
8. ETHICAL CHARTERS
Testo Unico dei doveri del giornalista: https://www.odg.it/testo-unico-dei-doveri-del-giornalista/24288
Il Manifesto di Venezia: come raccontare il femminicidio: https://www.sindacatogiornalistiveneto.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MANIFESTO-DI-VENEZIA.pdf
9. METHODS OF READING FACTS
Some novels by Leonardo Sciascia and a short essay by Marc Bloch will be read during the workshop:
Leonardo Sciascia, Opere 1971-1983, Bompiani, Milano 1989 (from this book we will read La scomparsa di Majorana, Il teatro della memoria, I pugnalatori)
Leonardo Sciascia, To Each Its Own, NYRB Classics, 2000
Leonardo Sciascia, The Moro Affair, NYRB Classics, 2004
Leonardo Sciascia, Equal Danger, NYRB Classics,
Leonardo Sciascia, The Day of the Owl, NYRB, 2003
Marc Bloch, Reflections of a Historian on the False News of the War (available on line: https://www.miwsr.com/2013/downloads/2013-051.pdf and among the course materials on Moodle or Teams)
Reference Bibliography
1. TOOLS FOR THE REPORTER Randall, David, The Universal Journalist. London: Plutopress 2000 2. CRIME NEWS / IN THIS SECTION A VOLUME TO BE CHOSEN FROM: (edited by Davide Bagnoli), La cronaca nera in Italia. Il perché della sua spettacolarizzazione, Temperino Rosso-Edizioni Fortini, Brescia 2016 Francesca Rizzuto, La società dell'orrore. Terrorism and communication in the age of emotional journalism, Pisa University Press 2018 (also available in e-book, e.g. in the Libraries of Rome network https://www.bibliotechediroma.it/opac/resource/la-societa-dellorrore-terrorismo-e-comunicazione-nellera-del-giornalismo-emotivo/ML_0000150254086?tabDoc=tabcata ) 3. THE ITALIAN EXCEPTION / IN THIS SECTION ONE TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES: Enrico Deaglio, Il raccolto rosso 1982-2010, Il Saggiatore, Milan 2010 Enrico Deaglio, La bomba. 50 anni da piazza Fontana, Feltrinelli 2019 Rita Di Giovacchino, Il libro nero della Prima Repubblica, Fazi editore, Rome 2005 Giovanni Vignali, L'uomo nero e le stragi, Paper First, Rome 2021 Giovanni Fasanella-José Cereghino, Le menti del doppio Stato, Chiarelettere, Rome 2020 Giovanni Tizian, Il silenzio. Italy 1992-2022, Laterza, Bari 2022 4. SOCIAL HISTOTY / IN THIS SECTION ONE TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING VOLUMES: Paul Ginsborg, Italy and its discontents : family, civil society, state, 1980-2001, New York : Palgrave/Macmillan., 2003 Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth , Boston: The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series., 2018 Vanni Codeluppi, La vetrinizzazione sociale. Il processo di spettacolarizzazione degli individui e della società, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2007 Byung-Chul Han, The Expulsion of the Other: Society, Perception and Communication today, Cambridge: Polity Press., 2018 Byung-Chul Han, Infocracy: Digitization and the Crisis of Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2022 Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, Stanford University Press, 2015 5. MEDIA / IN THIS SECTION ONE TO CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING PAPERS OR BOOKS: Brittany Kaiser, Targeted: The Cambridge Analityca Whistleblower’s Inside Story of how Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and how it Can Happen Again, New York: Harper Collins Publishers., 2019 Christian Salmon, Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind, New York: Verso., 2017 Christian Salmon, La tyrannie des bouffons. Sur le pouvoir grotesque, ed. Les liens que libèrent, Paris 2020 Angelo Agostini, Giornalismi. Media e giornalisti in Italia, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012 Caterina Malavenda, Le regole dei giornalisti, Il Mulino, Bologna 2012 6. IDEAS / IN THIS SECTION ONE OF YOUR CHOICE FROM THE FOLLOWING PAPERS OR VOLUMES: Lilian Thuram, White Thinking: Behind The Mask of Racial Identity, London: Hero Publishers c/o University of Buckingham., 2021 F. Gatti, Bilal. Il mio viaggio clandestino nel mercato dei nuovi schiavi, Milano, 2007 Luciano Canfora, Fermare l’odio, Laterza, Bari 2019 Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Establishes Knowledge and Why it Matters, Oxford University Press., 2018 Anna Foa, Gli ebrei in Italia. I primi 2000 anni, Laterza, Bari 2022 Samir Kassir, Being Arab, London-New York City: Verso Books., 2006 François Jullien, On the Universal: The Uniform, the Common and Dialogue between Cultures, Polity Publisher, University of Cambridge, 2016 François Jullien, A Treatise on Efficacy: Between Western and Chinese Thinking, University of Hawaii, 2004 7. ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM / Naomi Oreskes-Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt, London: Bloomsbury Press., 2010 8. ETHICAL CHARTERS Testo Unico dei doveri del giornalista: https://www.odg.it/testo-unico-dei-doveri-del-giornalista/24288 Il Manifesto di Venezia: come raccontare il femminicidio: https://www.sindacatogiornalistiveneto.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/MANIFESTO-DI-VENEZIA.pdf 9. METHODS OF READING FACTS Some novels by Leonardo Sciascia and a short essay by Marc Bloch will be read during the workshop: Leonardo Sciascia, Opere 1971-1983, Bompiani, Milano 1989 (from this book we will read La scomparsa di Majorana, Il teatro della memoria, I pugnalatori) Leonardo Sciascia, To Each Its Own, NYRB Classics, 2000 Leonardo Sciascia, The Moro Affair, NYRB Classics, 2004 Leonardo Sciascia, Equal Danger, NYRB Classics, Leonardo Sciascia, The Day of the Owl, NYRB, 2003 Marc Bloch, Reflections of a Historian on the False News of the War (available on line: https://www.miwsr.com/2013/downloads/2013-051.pdf and among the course materials on Moodle or Teams)Type of delivery of the course
Attendance is compulsory (a maximum of 3 absences out of 12 lessons allowed). Lectures will be held in presence and the active participation of students will be essential. Participation in the course may take place in the classroom or online. Class schedule: every Friday from 2 to 5 p.m., CLASSROOM to be defined, via Ostiense 236. First lesson: 23 February 2024 March: 1, 8, 15, 22, (not the 29th due to Easter holidays) April: 5, 12, 19, 26 May: 3, 10, 17 Reception: Tuesdays and Thursdays h 18.30-20 online on the Faculty Teams network, by appointment to be requested by email (laura.delsere@uniroma3.it)Attendance
Attendance is compulsory (a maximum of 3 absences out of 12 lessons allowed). Lectures will be held in presence and the active participation of students will be essential. Participation in the course may take place in the classroom or online. Class schedule: every Friday from 2 to 5 p.m., CLASSROOM 16, via Ostiense 236. First lesson: 1 March 2024 March: 8, 15, 22, (not the 29th due to Easter holidays) April: 5, 12, 19, 26 May: 3, 10, 17, 24 Reception: Tuesdays and Thursdays h 18.30-20 online on the Faculty Teams network, by appointment to be requested by email (laura.delsere@uniroma3.it)Type of evaluation
Attendance and active participation in the lessons will be essential (lectures starting on 1 March 2024, 2-5 p.m. in room 16). During the Workshop, exercises will be organised with the various media and in-depth classroom work on major news cases entrusted to the students. Passing the course will therefore depend on the quality of these intermediate tests and the outcome of the final test (on the bibliography and lecture materials), set for 24 May 2024. The exam dates will then only be used for the recording of the course credits. Examination dates summer session 2024: 7 and 21 June, 5 July Autumn session 2024: 13 and 27 September Student reception hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 6.30-8 pm online on the Faculty Teams network, by appointment to be requested by email (laura.delsere@uniroma3.it)