Cross-Media Communication
A.Y. 2021/2022
Learning objectives
The course will give students methods and techniques which run the current world media system, an actual "cross-media" environment. Lessons will be carried out with three main ingredients: setting up, producing and performing extremely in-depth interviews with the high ranking officers of major international media companies. practicing "cross-media communication", brainstorming on designing "cross-media products".
The course will adopt, as didactics, a TV-crossmedia format production, in all its steps. In fact, students will manage, by themselves, a 15/18-episode audio-video production, covering the 15-18 main topics of cross-media world. The outcome will be a 20-hour-video "schoolbook" made by the students about the cross-media world.
The content of the production will be created by interviewing officers of major international and national media companies (e.g. Google, Rai, Mediset, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Telecom Italia, Netflix, Saatchi&Saatchi, Mondadori, Corriere.it, Auditel-Audiweb, Gazzetta.it, etc.). The main production phases will be: concept, pre-production, audio-video-pictures retrieving, art direction, production, post-production, marketing, media planning, content media management, final user management, advertising management, final product multiple media distribution (on TV, Web TV, IPTV, radio, mobile phones, etc.), working on social networks.
There will be no textbooks. The students of the course will produce the material (video) for the course itself by themselves. This is the fundamental teaching principle of the course: "self-producing one's own course". The work "outside the classroom" (at home, in other places other than the university) will rely heavily on personal creativity. The professor's approach will be strongly maieutic.
The course will adopt, as didactics, a TV-crossmedia format production, in all its steps. In fact, students will manage, by themselves, a 15/18-episode audio-video production, covering the 15-18 main topics of cross-media world. The outcome will be a 20-hour-video "schoolbook" made by the students about the cross-media world.
The content of the production will be created by interviewing officers of major international and national media companies (e.g. Google, Rai, Mediset, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Telecom Italia, Netflix, Saatchi&Saatchi, Mondadori, Corriere.it, Auditel-Audiweb, Gazzetta.it, etc.). The main production phases will be: concept, pre-production, audio-video-pictures retrieving, art direction, production, post-production, marketing, media planning, content media management, final user management, advertising management, final product multiple media distribution (on TV, Web TV, IPTV, radio, mobile phones, etc.), working on social networks.
There will be no textbooks. The students of the course will produce the material (video) for the course itself by themselves. This is the fundamental teaching principle of the course: "self-producing one's own course". The work "outside the classroom" (at home, in other places other than the university) will rely heavily on personal creativity. The professor's approach will be strongly maieutic.
Expected learning outcomes
By the end of the course students will acquire the ability to critically evaluate and discuss the impact, development and use of the topics covered during the course. The final exam aims to verify the expected learning outcomes in relation to these topics.
Lesson period: First trimester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Lesson period
First trimester
The lessons will be held in presence with the students - unable to be present and justified by valid reasons - who will use the Microsoft Teams platform. in this case lessons will be blended.
The exam will take place in written form, always using the Microsoft Teams platform, with "anti-copying" measures if there are mandatory restrictions on attendance in the classroom on the date of the exam.
The exam will take place in written form, always using the Microsoft Teams platform, with "anti-copying" measures if there are mandatory restrictions on attendance in the classroom on the date of the exam.
Course syllabus
The global players of the digital industry; the global protagonists of the Web; the global protagonists of technological innovation; the international cross-media system in the Italian situation and comparison with the European and global one; from ideas to startups; the giants of the network, advertising agencies, data collection institutes; public and private media companies; telephone players in the digital and web evolution; digital innovation of SMEs; the offline and online music industry; the video game industry and gamification in marketing; become an entrepreneur of video games for mobile platforms; the state of radio in the digital age and the Web; aggregation platforms; the reference and UGC platforms; wiki platforms such as Wikipedia; the new cross-media marketing; social network marketing and cross-media management; vblogging of technologies, video games and lifestyle; the cross-media producer; influencers; youtubber; tiktoker; sociolinguistics and social editing; profit and non-profit advertising in the cross-media world; be the Communication Manager of a global platform; printed magazine vs. online magazine; large technological companies producing digital equipment for the general public.
Prerequisites for admission
Interest in acquiring skills and ability to transform the same communicative content in different media languages and formats, both offline and online. Ability to work in a team but also to form a team and organize it in the best possible way. Motivation to create innovative contents / concepts. Motivation to transfer the notions learned into work tools.
Teaching methods
The founding process of the "Cross-media communication" course is the construction of the course contents by the students themselves, contents that are created by "bringing the source directly to the university", that is, through interviews with experts and business leaders from the various sectors of cross-media, interviews to be performed in audio-video.
This is one of the key teaching principles of the course: "self-produce your own course", updating it every year, given that the topics covered have a well-known obsolescence that is calculated in months and not in years.
These interviews are accompanied by interviews with ordinary people (called "vox populi") on the subjects and themes interviewed from time to time in the university TV studio.
The basic didactic data of the course is the preparatory phase of the interviews which are the final moment of the research and learning of the contents.
This will be followed by the placement of the interviews in the University's video portal, the online "cross-mediaization" of these interviews, their communication with sites, social networks, but also with leaflets and posters, etc.
The teacher's approach will be totally maieutic and will focus throughout the course on learning by doing and on (1) stimulating, (2) putting in place and (3) amplifying individual micro-skills that 22-24 year-old students punctually it is verification they possess.
Another goal is to provide a "taste" of some cross-media production skills, also with the intention of motivating any future study to achieve a level of skills useful for a possible immediate career outcome.
The group of attending students will be organized into work teams and sub-teams, each student with their own badge with their name and surname and indicating their general choices of the roles they want to cover during the course. Experience confirms that group work takes the form of a few meetings and is strengthened considerably from week to week.
This is one of the key teaching principles of the course: "self-produce your own course", updating it every year, given that the topics covered have a well-known obsolescence that is calculated in months and not in years.
These interviews are accompanied by interviews with ordinary people (called "vox populi") on the subjects and themes interviewed from time to time in the university TV studio.
The basic didactic data of the course is the preparatory phase of the interviews which are the final moment of the research and learning of the contents.
This will be followed by the placement of the interviews in the University's video portal, the online "cross-mediaization" of these interviews, their communication with sites, social networks, but also with leaflets and posters, etc.
The teacher's approach will be totally maieutic and will focus throughout the course on learning by doing and on (1) stimulating, (2) putting in place and (3) amplifying individual micro-skills that 22-24 year-old students punctually it is verification they possess.
Another goal is to provide a "taste" of some cross-media production skills, also with the intention of motivating any future study to achieve a level of skills useful for a possible immediate career outcome.
The group of attending students will be organized into work teams and sub-teams, each student with their own badge with their name and surname and indicating their general choices of the roles they want to cover during the course. Experience confirms that group work takes the form of a few meetings and is strengthened considerably from week to week.
Teaching Resources
Matteo Ward - Communication of sustainable fashion:
https://video.unimi.it/embedvideo/?mid=1903
Riccardo Vessa - Online communication and YouTube:
https://video.unimi.it/embedvideo/?mid=1904
Giano e Franci - Food communication:
https://video.unimi.it/embedvideo/?mid=1905
https://video.unimi.it/embedvideo/?mid=1903
Riccardo Vessa - Online communication and YouTube:
https://video.unimi.it/embedvideo/?mid=1904
Giano e Franci - Food communication:
https://video.unimi.it/embedvideo/?mid=1905
Assessment methods and Criteria
Exam methods for attending and non-attending students: the test will be written. The "textbooks" are the 16 face-to-face video interviews - not online - that the students themselves produced as study material for themselves and for non-attending students during the course.
The written test will consist of:
1 - The first question always proposes a cross-media event that the student must organize by proposing a team of 5 of the 16 interviewees, assigning each one a task and motivating the choice for each one.
2 - The second question indicates 5 of the 16 interviews and asks the student which parts of each video-interview he found least or not at all interesting / more boring / useless and which parts were most interesting / communicative / useful and also asks the reasons for the judgments expressed.
3 - The third question asks to devise and organize from scratch - in the role of author, director, producer, creative - a content (program, website, newspaper, event, show, etc.) of which a target group of reference, an actual publisher on the Italian or international scene and a precise editorial objective. The student must describe it in detail, indicate the format, the main idea, the articulation, the language, etc .; propose a work plan; propose a cross-media communication plan to communicate the work.
The evaluation of the writings will focus on:
A - the degree of acquisition of language and cognitive tools capable of "crossing" the different factors in the field of cross-media communication;
B - the degree of ability to compose media convergence frameworks consistent with the tasks assigned and adequately responding to them;
C - The degree of analytical skills and its exposure to complex communication contexts.
The written test will consist of:
1 - The first question always proposes a cross-media event that the student must organize by proposing a team of 5 of the 16 interviewees, assigning each one a task and motivating the choice for each one.
2 - The second question indicates 5 of the 16 interviews and asks the student which parts of each video-interview he found least or not at all interesting / more boring / useless and which parts were most interesting / communicative / useful and also asks the reasons for the judgments expressed.
3 - The third question asks to devise and organize from scratch - in the role of author, director, producer, creative - a content (program, website, newspaper, event, show, etc.) of which a target group of reference, an actual publisher on the Italian or international scene and a precise editorial objective. The student must describe it in detail, indicate the format, the main idea, the articulation, the language, etc .; propose a work plan; propose a cross-media communication plan to communicate the work.
The evaluation of the writings will focus on:
A - the degree of acquisition of language and cognitive tools capable of "crossing" the different factors in the field of cross-media communication;
B - the degree of ability to compose media convergence frameworks consistent with the tasks assigned and adequately responding to them;
C - The degree of analytical skills and its exposure to complex communication contexts.
SPS/08 - SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor:
Fleischner Edoardo Roberto Francesco