Programme

The course aims to provide students with the critical and theoretical tools to orient themselves in the modern society of communication and to understand the interaction between historical and technological components on the one hand and cultural and social on the other.
The course is divided into two parts: a theoretical-general and a monographic part.
The first part is devoted to the analysis of the main theories and the most important interpretative models developed within the research on mass communications with particular regard to the sociological field. Particular attention will be devoted to the modern "network society", to its theories and its impact on society and social relations.
In the final part of the course, we analyze the impact of television on Italian society and culture from the 50s to the present day. This part of the course, on the one hand, deepens the knowledge of Italian television in the different phases and seasons of the country. On the other hand, it analyses the effects of television on the individual and collective Italian identity, trough the analysis of some of the most famous Italian political talk-shows.

Core Documentation

Luciano Paccagnella, Sociologia della comunicazione nell'era digitale, Il Mulino, Bologna 2020, capitoli 3, 4, 5. (New edition 2020 light blue cover)
Edoardo Novelli, La democrazia del talk-show, Carocci, Roma 2016.

Type of delivery of the course

Frontal lesson and analysis of audiovisual materials.

Type of evaluation

Open questions on the exam program

Programme

The course in Media Sociology aims to provide students with a knowledge of the main social and cultural changes that followed the evolution of "traditional" media (press, radio, television) and later of the new media, focusing on the relationship between technology, individual and society. The first part of the course is focused on the sociological studies developed during the 20th century in concomitance with the development of mass media, paying attention the main actors involved in the communication processes: the sender, the message, the receiver, and the effects. A further focus is set on the social, cultural, individual and interpersonal transformations due to the development of the Internet and the social network sites, which are as spaces opening up to new opportunities but at the same time as agents of new inequalities. The second part focuses on the history and development of the television, and specifically of a television genre that is prominent on the Italian scenario: the political talk show. By analysing the main transformations of the “democracy” (democrazia dei partiti, democrazia dello spettacolo, teledemocrazia, democrazia del pubblico, postdemocrazia, democrazia ibrida), the format (puro, impuro, ibrido) and taking into account the arise of new media and new form of participation, students can reflect on the evolution not only of the relationship between politics and television, but also between politics, television and citizenship.

Core Documentation

1. Paccagnella, L. (2020). Sociologia della comunicazione nell'era digitale (new ed - blue cover). Bologna: il Mulino (chapters 3, 4, 5).
2. Novelli, E. (2016). La democrazia del talk-show. Storia di un genere che ha cambiato la televisione, la politica, l’Italia. Roma: Carocci.
3. Additional materials will be communicated by the professor during the classes.

Type of delivery of the course

Teaching takes place in the classroom, but there is also the remotely teaching via Teams.

Type of evaluation

The evaluation is done by submission of a "written test" to be held during the examination sessions.