Communication

Offering this elective allows students to gain a deeper understanding of current social media communications and emerging technologies. From the perspective of disciplinary development, this course is conducive to cultivating students' ability to integrate theory with practice, especially how to combine the knowledge of communication with the changes in media technology, which is in line with the characteristics of applied communication.

Though this course you will

1) Understand the history of social media development

2) Be familiar with the basic terminology, academic concepts and important theories of social media communication

3) Improve the ability to apply relevant theories to analyze social media phenomena

4) Improve the specific communication practice ability of social media communication

5) Learn some basic methods for evaluating social media communication practices

This course introduces managerial knowledge within the context of media as an industry. It provides an overview of the current turbulence as well as the landscape of future media industries. The course addresses the current states of media industries; digital transformation of media companies; adoption of emerging technologies in media industries; application of strategic concepts to media fields; users in digital media, and regulatory issues in media industries.

The course is an introductory course on the creative aspects of the mass media, media art, new media and popular culture. The course aims to enhance creative, aesthetic as well as intellectual ability of evaluating different media art forms and expression. The course covers art theory, aesthetics, theories on creativity, technical and commercial aspects of various forms of production and popular culture. The course is a combination of lecture, plays, productions, workshops and discussions. Assessment: radio production, photo essay, video production, in-class discussion, work and presentation.

This course explores ways to create and put together narrative and reflective stories with images and sounds in order to communicate ideas and generate viewer resonance.

This course introduces the eco-system concept to examine ways that innovating firms interact with various actors to build and sustain viable global enterprises. Actors include: suppliers, competitors, investors, users/customers, governments and universities. 

This is a graduate level course that is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. This course analyzes the way the western media covers the developing world and the humanitarian emergencies. Specifically the course explores the emerging and historical humanitarian narratives, with particular reference to the way in which the activities of NGOs are reported; how we understand and explain faraway disasters; how the media representations of suffering and violence has changed in the post-cold war period and in the digital era; the relationship between media, aid, corporate communication, and branding; and the relationship between power, media, and migration. This course encourages students to think sociologically about a range of issues and “social problems” related to the different ways in which media is used to report on humanitarian situations, and what impact this has. It also serves as an introduction to some important themes and issues within humanitarianism and migration. Areas under study include: the construction of “social problems,” media, ethics, human rights, disaster relief, war, famine, refugee camps, social movements, and NGOs.  A special focus is dedicated to the mediated performances that contribute to create the spectacle of the humanitarian border, which is physically and symbolically enacted by the different actors involved in contemporary management of migration. Moving from the assumption that our awareness of nearly all humanitarian issues is defined by the media, this course looks at the literature associated with humanitarian organizations and the NGO narratives, tracing the imagined and real encounters between solidarity, participation, and citizenship in the context of larger social processes of mediation and globalization. Examining humanitarian communication through various forms of aesthetic activism - documentary, photojournalism, benefit concerts, celebrities, and live blogging, the course explores how the circulation of humanitarian images and narratives impact the peoples it aims to serve, and what can be learned about global inequality from the stories associated with it. The course also focuses on how several news media framed Covid-19 as an invisible enemy, using metaphor of war to describe the current situation. The definition of the emergency as a war conducts inevitably to the identification of an enemy. The hyper-visibility of the war against this invisible enemy leads to a generalized fear of ‘the others’ and to the identification of this invisibility in visible bodies. Finally, the course reflects on long-term implications of the pandemic on mobility justice and what Mbembe (2020) has defined the “right to breath.” There are two versions of this course; this course, UCEAP Course Number 169B and Bologna course number 75073, is associated with the LM in Sociology and Social Work and LM in Local and Global Development degree programmes. The other version, UCEAP Course Number 169A and Bologna course number 81782, is associated with the LM in Language, Society and Communication degree programme.