Italian Language in the Media

6 ECTS credits
180 h study time

Offer 2 with catalog number 4020117FNR for all students in the 1st semester at a (F) Master - specialised level.

Semester

1st semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Taught in

Italian

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

Linguistics and Literary Studies

Educational team

Stefano De Pascale (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

13 contact hours Lecture
15 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
156 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

The course is dedicated to the study of the structures of contemporary Italian and of its different applications in various communicative contexts. The classes will focus on the description and analysis of written and oral varieties of contemporary Italian. Students will learn how the communication changes according to specific contexts and the three regulative principles of textual communication (efficiency, effectiveness and appropriateness). The course will also focus on the variations of contemporary Italian, with particular attention to the differences related to the registers and the characteristics of the special languages. In particular, three dedicated work packages will engage respectively with a) Italian in journalism, b) Italian and politics, c) Italian in the social media. The outline of the course is as follows:

Module 1 (2 classes) - Introduction: the first part of the course will act as an introduction, with a brief overview of the different approaches for the analysis of a language (morphological, lexical, syntactical, rhetorical and stylistic), and of the different theories and methodological frameworks related to communication studies.

Module 2 (4 classes) - Italian and journalism: banking on my experience as a journalist in Italy for the national newspaper “Il Gazzettino”, the students will be introduced to some of the features of the Italian journalism language. The classes will consist in the comparison of actual articles taken from the most prominent Italian newspapers, and they will show what are the communication strategies behind them, providing the students with critical instruments for their interpretation. The module will be supported by the application of some basic Digital Humanities approaches and open access softwares (e.g. Voyant tools) for the text analysis, which will show the students new instruments for the critical reading of news and articles.

Module 3 (4 classes) - Italian and politics: the module focuses on the analysis and description of the language and communication strategies of Italian politicians from Mussolini to the modern days. The classes will outline how the language of politics evolved over the decades and in relation to the main political turning points of the period. Thanks to the application of DH tools for text analysis, it will be shown in particular what are the predominant lexical constellations and rhetorical strategies of the modern political discourse.

Module 4: (2 classes) – Italian and the social media: the module focuses on the changes faced by the Italian language because of the impact of social media in everyday’s life. The lessons will explore how the communication in Italian works on these social platforms, and how their exponential growth plays a role in the evolution of the language.

Course material

Handbook (Recommended) : Essere #matteorenzi, C. Giunta, Il Mulino, Bologna, 9788815257291, 2013
Handbook (Recommended) : Parole al potere, Discorsi politici italiani, G. Pedullà, Rizzoli, Milano, 9788817025201, 2015
Handbook (Recommended) : L'italiano al voto, R. Vetrugno, C. De Santis, C. Panzeri e F. Della Corte (a cura di), Accademia della Crusca, Firenze, 9788889369128, 2017
Handbook (Recommended) : Politolinguistica, L'analisi del discorso politico, L. Cedroni, Prefazione di T. de Mauro, Carocci, Roma, 9788843073979, 2017
Handbook (Recommended) : Linguistica italiana, M. Palermo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 9788815284891, 2020

Additional info

Frontal classes with the support of digital tools. After the first two classes, which will consist in the explanation of general concepts related to linguistics and communication theories, every lesson will be based on the guided analysis of relevant cases study. The students will therefore be actively involved in the lessons, and they will be asked both to analyse and produce texts of different kinds and with different communication purposes.

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

Students will be evaluated on the expected learning outcomes. First of all, they will learn notions about specific topics and theories within the frame of Communication studies. Secondly, they will learn how to recognize and analyze the main linguistic, textual and rhetorical features of a text in relation to its context, applying the knowledge acquired during the course and gaining scientific independence. Thirdly, students will learn how to communicate effectively in relation to specific goals, contexts and targets. Weekly exercises are planned in order to constantly observe their progresses.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 50% of the final mark.
Written Exam determines 50% of the final mark.

Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

oral exam with a relative weight of 50 which comprises 50% of the final mark.

Note: The oral exam, will be based on the analysis and the description of a specific case study, similar to those treated in class: the students will have to apply the instruments and the notions learned during the course to answer precise questions about the contents, the goals and the features of the text.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

written exam with a relative weight of 50 which comprises 50% of the final mark.

Note: The students will have to produce a written text following precise parameters set within the context of a simulated scenario

Additional info regarding evaluation

The exam will be divided into two parts. For the first part of the exam the students will have to produce a written text following precise parameters set within the context of a simulated scenario. The second, oral, will be based on the analysis and the description of a specific case study, similar to those treated in class: the students will have to apply the instruments and the notions learned during the course to answer precise questions about the contents, the goals and the features of the text.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context