30469 - CRITICAL APPROACHES TO THE ARTS II - MODULE I (TELEVISION AND CULTURE)
Course offered to incoming exchange students
Department of Social and Political Sciences
Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 31
Course Director:
ANDREA QUARTARONE
ANDREA QUARTARONE
Suggested background knowledge
The course does not require proficiency in communication, mass media or contemporary history. However a genuine interest in all these subjects and a constant monitoring of national and international news are strongly recommended.
Mission & Content Summary
MISSION
As the most important mainstream media, television has always had an extraordinary capability in amplifying the actuality depicted, determining the reality perception and influencing public opinion. And even if this power is expressed in any program, even in the lightest entertainment, in the media events realm it reveals its magnitude at best. And the dramatic national, international and global historical events of these years have intensified the process of reciprocal influence between media and societies probably like never before.
The first objective of the course is to make students explore and understand the storytelling epic, the symbolic imaginaries and the ideological architectures of media events and their coverage. The specific focus on recent dramatic moments in human and media histories will provide students a further direct-experience based occasion to develop a critical and meaning creation oriented approach towards the medium.
The final goal is to let students appreciate how television works, how it’s able to take a precise picture of constitutive parameters, problematic conjunctions, practices, moods and contradictions of societies, and why it still plays such a strategic role in social, cultural, political issues in national and international contexts.
CONTENT SUMMARY
Essentially, the course main subject is the relation of reciprocal influence between television and society. Built on a solid critical basis, mostly linked to cultural studies, sociology and journalism theories, the programme is designed under the theoretical umbrella of the most important medium scholars, from McLuhan to Beaudrillard, from Kellner to Dayan and Katz.
Specifically, the course texture is made by four conceptual layers:
1) The medium's nature - its history, its communication spectrum, its storytelling processes, its conceptual architectures
2) The television's social implications - its meaning structures, its relations of power, its impact on public opinion and popular consent
3) The media events field - with ritual planned events and disruptive unplanned ones – several examples will be shown, analysed and explained in class
4) The ‘trauma television’ - the on-going disaster marathon started few years ago with the pandemic, and then continued with the Capitol Hill riots, the climate change catastrophes, the Taliban takeover of Aghanistan and the Ukranian war - an extraordinary instance of the link between medium, contemporary history and public sphere
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of the course student will be able to...
- Identify and illustrate the complexity of television communication spectrum
- Define and summarize the historical and actual role of television in societies
- Explore and explain the relation between television and audiences, politics, cultures
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
At the end of the course student will be able to...
- Analyze, understand and possibly govern the ideological and symbolic architecture of television
- Evaluate and interpret opportunities, challenges and implications given by the social dimension of the medium
- Develop a full awarness of the potentialities of the medium and a full consciousness of the social and civil responsabilities involved in media production
Teaching methods
- Face-to-face lectures
- Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
- Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
- Individual assignments
- Interactive class activities on campus/online (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)
DETAILS
The teaching style is characterized by the regular screening of audiovisual materials and a strong, continuous, meaning-creation oriented interaction between teacher-students. In addition to this:
- Guest speakers will provide a different (broader, narrower or lateral) perspectives on the course topics
- Case studies will be analysed and discussed through interactive orgnized class activities (e.g. workshop)
- Individual assignments will provide students the possibility to develop and express their own critical skills (for attending students)
Generally speaking, students’ contributes to the class meaning creation are important for the success of the course, and they could guide it to new, unexpected, welcomed didactical path.
Assessment methods
| Continuous assessment | Partial exams | General exam | |
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x |
ATTENDING STUDENTS
- Individual assignment: a 2-pages critical essay - delivered some weeks before the exam - about one of the topics discussed in class choosen by the student, in order to evaluate capabilities in:
- Evaluate and interpret opportunities, challenges and implications given by the social dimension of the medium
- Analyze and understand the ideological and symbolic architecture of television.
- Oral individual exam about the course topics. The exam is designed to evaluate student capabilities in:
- Identify and illustrate the complexity of television communication spectrum
- Define and summarize the historical and actual role of television in societies
- Explore and explain the relation between television and audiences, politics, cultures
NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS
- A final, oral exam about two books (more detailed aspects are included in the syllabus). It's designed to evaluate candidate capabilities in:
- Identify and illustrate the complexity of television communication spectrum
- Define and summarize the historical and actual role of television in societies
- Explore and explain the relation between television and audiences, politics, cultures
Teaching materials
ATTENDING STUDENTS
Slides, personal notes and a bibliography as indicated in the syllabus at the beginning of the course.
NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS
Bibliography is indicated in the syllabus at the beginning of the course.
Last change 24/05/2023 18:33