The course "Forms and Styles of journalistic writing" aims to provide a critical understanding of the most common forms and styles of journalistic writing, such as investigation, reportage, documentary, literary description, cross-media storytelling. The course aims to provide: 1) a thorough knowledge of the most common forms of journalistic writing 2) analysis of some of the most known journalistic texts dedicated to the importance of the style of writing 3) a case study on the relationship between form and style of journalistic writing and the representation of reality.
The aim of the course is for the students to acquire a general idea of the forms of journalistic writing and to understand the importance of style as a cognitive category.
At the end of the course, the student will be able to analyse the importance of the plurality of forms and styles of writing in describing reality.
The aim of the course is for the students to acquire a general idea of the forms of journalistic writing and to understand the importance of style as a cognitive category.
At the end of the course, the student will be able to analyse the importance of the plurality of forms and styles of writing in describing reality.
teacher profile teaching materials
Bergamini, Oliviero. Specchi di guerra. Giornalismo e conflitti armati da Napoleone a oggi. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 2009.
Arduino, Alessandro. La guerra è cambiata. Droni, IA e mercenari. Torino: Einaudi, 2026.
II. Reportages
Parise, Goffredo. Guerre politiche. Vietnam, Biafra, Laos, Cile. Torino: Einaudi, 1976.
Terzani, Tiziano. Buonanotte, signor Lenin. Milano: Longanesi, 1993.
Carlotto, Massimo. Le irregolari. Buenos Aires Horror Tour. Roma: E/O, 1998.
Quirico, Domenico. Guerra totale. La bancarotta bellicista. Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 2022.
Mannocchi, Francesca. Io Khaled vendo uomini e sono innocente. Torino: Einaudi, 2019.
Programme
This course examines the narrative forms through which wars are represented, constructed and circulated in public discourse. The first section offers a structural and historical account of war journalism — from the Napoleonic press to the age of drone warfare and AI — tracing the political economy of visibility: what gets told, and at whose service. The second section turns to the reportage as a literary-political genre, reading Parise, Terzani, Carlotto, Quirico and Mannocchi as writers whose formal choices are never innocent. Style is ideology. The angle of vision, the selection of testimony, the decision to name or silence — all these are acts that carry the weight of a political unconscious. The course concludes by confronting the present: Quirico's "total war" and Mannocchi's Libya as symptomatic texts of a global order in which sovereignty, violence and the media apparatus have become indistinguishable.Core Documentation
I. TeoriaBergamini, Oliviero. Specchi di guerra. Giornalismo e conflitti armati da Napoleone a oggi. Roma-Bari: Laterza, 2009.
Arduino, Alessandro. La guerra è cambiata. Droni, IA e mercenari. Torino: Einaudi, 2026.
II. Reportages
Parise, Goffredo. Guerre politiche. Vietnam, Biafra, Laos, Cile. Torino: Einaudi, 1976.
Terzani, Tiziano. Buonanotte, signor Lenin. Milano: Longanesi, 1993.
Carlotto, Massimo. Le irregolari. Buenos Aires Horror Tour. Roma: E/O, 1998.
Quirico, Domenico. Guerra totale. La bancarotta bellicista. Vicenza: Neri Pozza, 2022.
Mannocchi, Francesca. Io Khaled vendo uomini e sono innocente. Torino: Einaudi, 2019.
Reference Bibliography
Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. Kapuściński, Ryszard. The Cynic Is Not Fit for This Profession: Conversations on Journalism. Edited by Maria Nadotti. London–New York: Verso, 2000. Siti, Walter. Il realismo è l’impossibile. Roma: Nottetempo, 2013. Zaffaroni, Eugenio Raúl. Una storia criminale del mondo. Colonialismo e diritti umani dal 1492 a oggi. Bari–Roma: Laterza, 2025.Attendance
attendance is not compulsoryType of evaluation
Assessment for non-attending students consists of a written argumentative essay addressing two open questions: the first on the two theoretical texts; the second on one of the reportages listed in the course syllabus. Assessment for attending students consists of an oral examination covering the two theoretical texts and one reportage of the student's choice from the syllabus, together with active participation in the closing seminar of the course.