Seminario di ricerca: Tackling the Visual – Using and Assessing Images in Online Environments

Obiettivi

This course held partly in Italian and partly in English is dedicated to the examination and discussion of online visual communication. It deepens the knowledge already obtained in the course “Comunicazione online”. Networked visuals, that is digital images embedded in networked flows of digital (and mobile) communication, are ubiquitous elements and keywords such as photo sharing, image banks, data visualizations have become ever more prominent. Images are considered very powerful elements that can be used to establish close connections with distant others in everyday life, to communicate information and create emotions efficiently, to persuade but also to lie and to implicitly convey inappropriate messages. At the same time, visuals still represent challenges for discussions, evaluation and analysis as they are open to multiple interpretations and are still very difficult to handle automatically. In the course we will “tackle the visual” together and look at the role of online visual communication for various fields, such as journalism, advertising, political communication, marketing and brand communication as well as everyday communication thereby particularly acknowledging the role of platforms, algorithms and meta-data. Depending on the individual interests, students will develop small projects in one of these areas and focus on the respective role of images. The necessary theoretical background as well as further literature regarding visual communication in the chosen field will be provided by the lecturers, who will guide the student during the whole project work. The main aim of the course is to provide the students with analytical and practical tools for critically discussing and examining digital visuals in various field of application and to improve their scientific writing skills.

Contenuti

1. Digital communication and the role of visuals in online environments. Basic theoretical approaches and methods of analysis (overview).
2. Individual / group projects with a focus on selected fields of application, such as journalism (e.g. data journalism and data visualization, visual fake news), advertising and brand communication (communicating brand values visually, styles of digital advertising photography), political communication (e.g. images of power in Social Network Sites, populist imageries, visual “protest” communication), marketing (e.g. visual user-generated content and “visibility techniques” in influencer marketing) and everyday communication (e.g. image-sharing in social relationships, visual self-representation)
3. Presentations of projects and discussion

Impostazione pedagogico-didattica

The course starts with presentations by the lecturers in the first weeks of the semester. In the following weeks, selected papers and scientific literature will be discussed in plenary sessions. Students will choose topics for the individual or group projects to be conducted during the semester. The projects will be assisted by the lecturers and will receive individual feedback on various occasions, including one plenary feedback round in week 7 of the semester. In the last three weeks of the semester, students will briefly present their work in plenary sessions. Each project will be discussed and will receive feedback.

Modalità d’esame

In the exam session the students will hand in scientific papers (4000-5000 words) in English or Italian. Based on prior agreements with the lecturers, the papers can either be literature reviews, empirical work or project summaries.

Evaluation will be based on the individual or group project conducted during the semester (30%) and on the individual paper handed in during the exam session (70%).

Riferimenti bibliografici

To be announced

Ulteriori letture

Further readings will be provided after selection of topics by the students.