49548 - History of Mass Communication (1)

Academic Year 2024/2025

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Communication Sciences (cod. 8885)

    Also valid for First cycle degree programme (L) in Communication Sciences (cod. 5975)

Course contents

The course will illustrate the history of mass media from the beginning of the contemporary age to the present time. The links of mass media with more general cultural, economic, political and social processes will be examined through a comparative and transnational approach. The different mass media (press, telegraph, radio, cinema, television, up to digital media) will be analysed through numerous case studies. Particular attention will be paid to the relationship between public time and mass media.

Readings/Bibliography

INSTITUTIONAL PART

Attending students will study the topics covered in class from the following texts:

  • Asa Briggs, Peter Burke, Social History of the Media. From Gutenberg to the Internet, Il Mulino, 2010. (chapters and/or paragraphs indicated in class)
  • Mauro Forno, Informazione e potere. Storia del giornalismo italiano, Laterza, Roma, 2012 (chapters and/or paragraphs indicated in class)
  • Lyn Gorman, David Mclean, Media and Society into the 21st Century: A Historical Introduction, Wiley-Blackwell (chapters and/or paragraphs indicated in class)


NON-attending students will study the following pair of texts:

  • Mauro Forno, Informazione e potere. Storia del giornalismo italiano, Laterza, Rome, 2012 (all)
  • Lyn Gorman, David Mclean, Media and Society into the 21st Century: A Historical Introduction, Wiley-Blackwell. (all)

MONOGRAPHIC PART:
Attending students prepare the following text:

  • F. Triola, L'orologio del potere. Stato e misura del tempo nell'Italia contemporanea, 1749-1922, Il Mulino, 2023.

Non-attending students prepare a text of their choice from those listed below:

  • W. Lippmann, Public Opinion, (any edition).
  • F. Triola, L'orologio del potere. Stato e misura del tempo nell'Italia contemporanea, 1749-1922, Il Mulino, 2023

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) and with the lecturer in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Teaching methods

Frontal lectures. The teacher will always be present in the classroom designated for teaching.

Assessment methods

Attending students:


two written tests of 5 open-ended questions on the institutional part of the course (the first one will take place in the middle of the course and the second one at the end of the lectures) and one written test of 5 open-ended questions on the monographic part during the normal examination appointments.
Non-attending students


The learning assessment will be carried out by means of a written test of 15 open-ended questions on the institutional part and the monographic part. Students will have to demonstrate their knowledge and ability to critically rework the contents of the texts indicated in the institutional part and in the monographic part.
In the formulation of the grade in thirtieths, account will be taken of the possession of a mastery of expression and specific language, of the structural and historical-contextual understanding of the topics addressed. Formative deficiencies, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliography as well as lack of knowledge and understanding and inability to analyse the history of mass communications between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can only be assessed negatively.


The lecturer reserves the right to modify the test methods.


STUDENTS IN EXAMINATION DEBT (6 CFU PROGRAMME) WILL TAKE THE EXAMINATION ORALLY

To take the exam, it is necessary to register for the list via the Alma Esami service. Non-registered students will not be admitted to take the examination. It is also necessary for registered students, if they decide not to appear for the exam, to remove themselves from the roll call list. We also remind you that it is necessary to present yourself at the roll-call with your University of Bologna credentials and an identification document.


Students who have included the examination in their study plan in previous academic years are invited to contact the lecturer in order to agree on how the examination will be conducted.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en ) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.


Teaching tools

Power Point

Office hours

See the website of Filippo Triola