Course 2020-2021 a.y.

The course subject is the analysis of the television representation of two of the most important personalities of the nineteenth century: John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Richard Milhous Nixon. Strictly connected with the 2020 Biden / Trump U.S. presidential election and built on a solid theoretical/critical basis, mostly linked to cultural studies, sociology and political journalism theories, the course consider with particular attention three significant cases histories those have set the television event’s paradigm for many years:

• The first historical 1960 presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon analysed in parallel with the ones between 2020 presidential candidates - that have revolutionized the way of looking at res publica in television and still nowadays influences the treatment reserved by the medium to the political topic. It’s the medium that informs.

• The 1963 Kennedy assassination in Dallas and the following few days, that had originated the longest and most important live coverage in the worldwide television history until 9/11. It’s the medium that narrates.

• The 1977 Frost/Nixon interviews, when the former U.S. President admitted his responsibilities in the Watergate scandal which led to his resignation, three years before. It’s the medium that changes history.

The media coverage of the 2020 U.S. Presidential race and election between Joseph Robinett Biden and Donald J. Trump will be extensivly processed by the course and its class activities, especially with:

• An on-going, day-by-day, in-class analysis and debate about the most important campaign media issues

• A digital newsroom, made by volunteer students and coordinated by the professor and the tutor, that will collect data and informations, and provide critical interpretations about the campaign in order to realize…

• …a weekly radio program on Radio Bocconi that will summerize, illustrate and explain in a critical way the most important media events of the week

• For the presidential debates and the election day special nightly radio marathons will be held by teacher and students, with the participation of guests (media experts, professors, journalists).

• 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.

• Analyze and understand the ideological architecture of television.
• Evaluate the past and the actual social dimension of the medium, and foresee any possible development.
• Prepare her/himself to become a television professional with a full awarness of the potentialities of the medium and a full consciousness of the social and civil responsabilities involved in the cultural production.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Individual assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

The teaching style is characterized by the regular screening of audiovisual materials and a strong, continuous, meaning-creation oriented, interaction between teacher-students-external lecturers. In addition to this:

• Guest speakers will provide a different (broader, narrower or lateral) perspectives on the course topics.
• Individual assignments will provide students the possibility to develop and express their own critical skills.
• Not compulsory activites, such as the newsroom and the radio program production, will bring further development and insight in the analysis of media logic in content production and transformation

• 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 her/his capabilities in: 
  • Evaluate the past and the actual social dimension of the medium, and foresee any possible development.
  • Analyze and understand the ideological architecture of television.
• Oral individual exam: answers, explanations or personal perspectives provided about specific questions about course topics. The exam is designed to evaluate student capabilities in:
  • Define and summarize the historical and actual role of television in societies.
  • Identify and illustrate the complexity of television communication spectrum.
  • Explore and explain the relation between television and audiences, politics, cultures.

• A final, oral exam about two books (more detailed aspects are included in the syllabus). It's designed to evaluate candidate capabilities in:
  • Define and summarize the historical and actual role of television in societies.
  • Identify and illustrate the complexity of television communication spectrum.
  • Explore and explain the relation between television and audiences, politics, cultures.

Slides, personal notes and a bibliography as expressed in the syllabus at the beginning of the course.

Bibliography is expressed in the syllabus at the beginning of the course.