Communication

This course examines current events and the way they are covered in a variety of media outlets around the world, looking at framing, bias, stereotypes, context, story structure, and placement. Through lectures, discussions, a field trip, and class presentations, students analyze why news is reported as it is around the world and in the process become discerning media consumers better able to filter the noise and make decisions for themselves. The first half of the course is spent with lectures and discussions that examine the way news is covered around the world and why variations exist. The final half is devoted to student presentations on current event coverage. The presentations employ a "town hall" approach in which groups of students lead discussions on the issues and their coverage to classroom peers, being graded not just on content but audience engagement and participation. Topics of Discussion: Fake News, The Four Theories of the Press; News Values; News and Feature Story Structure; Media Effects and Communication Theory; Journalists and Media Organizations; Media Gatekeepers; Sources; Culture, Bias and Stereotypes; Language, Framing and Context; Legal Issues; Power and Economic Issues. Presentation Topics: Ongoing and breaking stories in the news.

This course introduces the background of China’s political institution and culture and provides overview of the relationship between China’s media and politics in a global context. The course provides a broad perspective of China’s political communication and a familiarity with China’s media system and its political consequences. Four general topics are explored: China's media system; China's international communication system; Chinese nationalism in international conflicts; China's public diplomacy and international relations. For each topic, the course is conducted with two lectures and one seminar. The students are divided into several groups, each of which will give a presentation on each topic. 

This course provides an overview of digital practices for translation and localization using open-source software. It covers localization and translation of software and documents. Topics include open-source software tutorials, creating and translating subtitles, group translation, and working on a synthesis.  

This introductory course gives students a critical understanding of the core principles of journalism. Students explore what news is, how news values have developed through time, and they gain insights in the specifics of reporting, news writing, and interviewing. They learn to critically reflect on these specifics in light of current debates about what journalism is and should be in a digital and global age. Students develop journalistic skills by writing news stories and critically self-reflecting on the journalistic principles that guide their practice.

This course engages with some of the key theories, approaches and findings that explore how language and social interaction underpin organizational life. The course draws on an interdisciplinary research field to interrogate the unique properties of "organizational discourse" and "institutional talk." It is structured around studies of organizational texts (e.g. recruitment brochures, mission statements, websites, and adverts), as well as studies of social interaction in organizational settings (e.g. business meetings, call centers, healthcare delivery, and sales encounters). 

The course examines how audiovisual as a means of perception (recognition) helps us understand the world and communicate with each other, covering the basics and applications of audiovisual communication, visual expression and practice.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course is intended for students who have a strong background in media studies and communication. The course focuses on mass media products using the specific tools of semiotic analysis. The course offers an introduction to the notion of the semiotic gaze applied to the media and the role of this gaze as a cultural phenomenon. The course includes a description of the main elements of contemporary media textuality and the increasing, yet ambivalent, process of media convergence, integration and transformation of media contents and forms. Attention is placed on the semiotic mechanisms able to generate links and connections between media objects and environments (games and videogames, TV series, fandom), and to activate a semiotic crossover that expresses itself in narrative, discursive and interactive dimensions. The course concentrates on concrete examples of audiovisual media texts and practices that are analyzed with different semiotic tools and concepts (from the specific dimensions of media textuality to the notions of media genre and format). The ultimate aim is the development of a semiotic gaze on both media-specific elements (the construction of the visible, the audible, rhythms and the syncretism of languages), as well as the relation between media textuality and experience. A special section of the course is devoted to the ways in which contemporary media texts and genres construct gender identities and the intersectionality with elements of race, color, class, age, and disabilities. Required readings include: SEMIOTICA DEI MEDIA. LE FORME DELL'ESPERIENZA MEDIALE and LA CONDIZIONE POSTMEDIALE. MEDIA, LINGUAGGI E NARRAZIONI by R. Eugeni, I MEDIA: STRUMENTI DI ANALISI SEMIOTICA by P. Peverini, MULTI TV. L'ESPERIENZA TELEVISIVA NELL'ETÀ CONTEMPORANEA by M. Scaglioni and A. Sfardini. After the first introductory week, students are invited to prepare class presentations based either on theoretical/methodological questions (related to the required readings), or on the application of different semiotic tools to specific case-studies. Assessment in the course is based on an oral exam and a paper on one of the topics discussed in class (i.e. forms of textuality and media practices, format and genres relating to gender and intersectional identities).

This course introduces students to the fundamental theoretical approaches relating to the study of facts, phenomena, and actors of communication. This course approaches the study of communication through a historical and comparative lens, allowing students to become acquainted with the diverse role communication has played over the years into the modern world. This includes an analysis of technological development and communication techniques on the function of mass media.