Programme

The course “Media” offers an overview of the main social and cultural transformations due to the evolution of the mass media (press, radio, television) and the digital media (World Wide Web, social networks), focusing on the relationship between technology, individuals and society.
The first part is dedicated to studying the principal theories in media studies and sociology of the 20th century, starting from the elements involved in the communication process, such as sender, message, receiver, and media effects.
The second part is dedicated to the social, cultural and interpersonal transformations due to the development of the internet and social network sites, as spaces for new opportunities and, at the same time, as vehicles of new inequalities. Starting from the discussion of some case studies, such as WikiLeaks and Cambridge Analytica, the advent of ChatGPT and the use of AI, the contradictions and anomalies, advantages and opportunities offered by the new information and communication technologies, as well as the gradual transformation of the social and cultural models linked to the information and platform society will be discussed.

Core Documentation

Materials to be defined.

Attendance

Frontal teaching.

Type of evaluation

Written test (open questions) on the topics discussed during the lectures.