Università Roma Tre

The course is part of the "Research Degree in Cultural Leadership" activated at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). It is held in English at the Roma Tre University and can also be attended by Italian or Erasmus students.

The course focuses on the analysis of the relationship between media and culture, with particular reference to Sociology and Cultural Studies. Particular emphasis is placed on the study of the transformations introduced by technological innovation and the globalization of cultural processes.

The teaching is divided into five parts, each of which will focus on different dimensions of media: 1) Trajectories of media innovation; 2) Platforms and algorithms; 3) Digital public spheres; 4) Media and geopolitics of the imagination; 5) Media ecologies. Each part will first be developed in theoretical terms and then analysed through case studies.

The course is based on the following list of compulsory readings:
1. Van Dijck, J., Poell, T. and de Waal, M., "Introduction" and "Chapter 1", in J. Van Dijck, T. Poell and M. de Waal, The Platform Society. Public Values in a Connective World, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2018.
2. Bolin, G., “Introduction”, “Media production and cultural industries”, and “New Organisational Forms of Value Production”, in G. Bolin, Value and the Media: Cultural Production and Consumption in Digital Markets, Taylor and Francis, London and New York, 2016.
3. Katzenbach, C., and Ulbricht, L., "Algorithmic governance." Internet Policy Review 8.4 (2019), pp. 1-18.
4. Nieborg, D. B., and Poell, T., "The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity." New media & society 20.11 (2018), pp. 4275-4292.
5. Striphas, T., “Algorithmic culture”, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 18.4-5 (2015), pp. 395-412.
6. Hesmondhalgh, D. "Have digital communication technologies democratized the media industries?," in J. Curran and D. Hesmondhalgh (eds.), Media and Society, 6th edition, New York: Bloomsbury, 2019, pp. 101-120.
7. Alexander, N., “Catered to your future self: Netflix’s “predictive personalization” and the mathematization of taste”, in K. McDonald and D. Smith-Rowsey (Eds.), The Netflix effect: Technology and entertainment in the 21 century, New York, NY, Bloomsbury, 2016, pp. 81–98.
8. Brown, Jeffrey A., “Girl Revolutionaries. Neoliberalist, Postfeminist, and Feminist Heroines”, in J. A. Brown, Beyond Bombshells: The New Action Heroine in Popular Culture, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, 2016, pp. 167-196.
9. Georgiou, M., “Diaspora in the Digital Era: Minorities and Media Representation”, Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, 12(4), 2013, pp. 80-99.

Students will also have access to teaching materials (power point and images) and to a series of suggested readings .

The teaching materials are available on the website http://filosofiacomunicazionespettacolo.uniroma3.it, in the teacher's personal webpage.