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MEDIA SOCIOLOGY

Overview

The course offers an overview of the relationships between communication theories, social uses of digital technologies, and social transformations, with a focus on information production processes and the social construction of meaning. The course promotes the adoption of a critical and intersectional perspective to the analysis of media and their languages.

Aims and Content

Learning Outcomes

The course aims at developing the analysis of the role of the electronic media in contemporary societies.

Aims and Learning Outcomes

The course aims to develop a critical reading capacity of the role and functioning of the media in contemporary societies. At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• know the main theoretical and conceptual constructs related to the current mediascape;
• identify the main organisational logics of mass and digital media;
• reflect critically on the role of the media in contemporary societies, with particular attention to the dynamics of power in the construction of news and meaning;
• know how to apply the acquired knowledge to concrete cases from national or international news.

Teaching Methods

The course alternates moments of frontal teaching with dialogical experiences centred on participation, theoretical investigation, and co-production of knowledge. Film or artistic works, from the Laboratory of Visual Sociology of the University of Genoa or other sources, can support teaching, discussion, and elaboration.

Classroom discussion of the topics dealt with, within which peer lectures or collective discussion of papers written by students are also foreseen, is considered a fundamental part of the course. Students will be encouraged to work in groups on theoretical texts, films, or other media content to broaden the perspectives through which the course topics are approached.

Participation in the lectures allows students to engage in discussions with researchers, experts from outside the academic world, and first-hand accounts related to the course topics.

The course will be held in presence, unless pandemic outbreaks require a return to DAD. In the event of an orange or red weather alert, lessons may be suspended or conducted remotely, via the TEAMS platform.

University students affected by DSA (Specific Learning Disorders) are entitled to support measures and teaching flexibility and may contact the lecturer to agree on specific teaching or assessment methods.

Syllabus/Content

The course programme addresses the main theoretical constructions of the media system and explores their connection to contemporary society's main social transformations.

Through the presentation and discussion of documentary or audiovisual materials and through encounters with witnesses and experts, the focus will be on specific themes and social dynamics with particular attention to:

• digital communication and data colonialism;
• platform capitalism and the role it plays in the processes of political participation;
• media, consumption, and the commodification of time;
• the social construction of meanings with particular attention to the issues of gender and citizenship.

Recommended Reading/Bibliography

• Balbi, G., Comunello, F., Pasquali, F., & Sorice, M. (2025). Studiare i media. Prospettive disciplinari e parole chiave. Roma: Carocci.
• For non-attending students, in addition, one of the following texts:
  • Couldry, N., & Mejias, U. A. (2022). Il prezzo della connessione: Come i dati colonizzano la nostra vita e se ne appropriano per far soldi. Bologna: il Mulino.
  • Deseriis, M. (2024). Piattaforme e partecipazione politica. Milano: Mondadori universitŕ.
  • Estremo, V., Soldani, M. T., & Giordano, F. (a cura di) (2024). Cronofagia e media: La gestione e il consumo del tempo fra cinema, arti visive, TV e web. Meltemi Editore.
  • Lovink, G. (2023), La palude delle piattaforme , Nero Editions.
  • Vallorani, N. (2016). Introduzione ai cultural studies: UK, USA e paesi anglofoni. Roma: Carocci.

Teachers and Exam Board

• ENRICO FRAVEGA
• Exam Board:
  • ENRICO FRAVEGA (President)
  • FEDERICO RAHOLA

Lessons

Class Schedule

The timetable for this course is available on the university's platform.

Exams

Exam Description

The course offers two possible examination methods:

• a) students may prepare a theoretical-practical paper (short thesis), possibly accompanied by an audiovisual product, in which they will develop a topic related to the topics covered in the course. The papers will be presented in a group lesson held by the students themselves. The discussion of the papers is to be considered both an educational and an assessment opportunity. On this occasion, peer grading experiments may be conducted. The papers must demonstrate the ability to handle theoretical concepts and the conceptual tools of the discipline;
• b) for non-attending students, there will be an oral examination of their knowledge of the exam texts.

For students with disabilities or specific learning disorders (SLD), adjustments during the exam can be requested by uploading certification to the university website and contacting the lecturer in advance.