Languages of the Media

Aims The course "Languages of the Media", aims to improve the English communication skills of the students, with a particular focus on the media discourse and the different media languages. The course gives the students a general background of the different kinds of media languages, starting with a general introduction to key concepts such as language, media, mediated communication, register and style. In agreement with the general targets of the B.A. Comunicazione e Società, the course also describes how the media system works, focusing its attention particularly on journalism and advertising as two of the main important current media languages. The course highlights the differences as well as the similarities between these two languages in the light of the social media revolution, underlying also the threat represented by fake news.

Making students able to correctly recognize the most important media languages, with a particular focus on journalistic language and advertising language, is the main expected learning outcome. In addition to this, students are also expected to be able to correctly understand the structure of a message (text, visual, video etc ) and its relationship with the social, cultural and historical context. Since the course is given in English, the lessons constitute an important opportunity for participants to improve their knowledge and understanding of the English language, with a particular regard to the technical terms used in the media industry. Practicing English is also stimulated by reading and commenting on articles about media discourse during the lessons.