Educational objectives The overall objective of the course is to offer a timely reconstruction of the relationship between leadership and the political system. The analysis of the characters and profiles of political leadership will be conducted following a comparative method that will examine the figure of the leader(s) in its historical evolution and its multiple confugurations on the cotemporary political scenario. Particular attention will be paid to the analysis of the processes of personalization and leaderization of the political system and to the reconstruction of the increasingly close relationship established throughout modernity between the processes of leadership construction and the characterizing dynamics of the media system. Finally, a focus will be devoted to an in-depth study of the relationship between gender and political leadership, from a historical perspective and with a look at the current rise of populism.
Knowledge and Ability to Understand
Upon completion of the course, the student will have acquired knowledge and adequate understanding:
- Of the central themes in the field of study: the logics of political leadership construction and reconception and their evolution; the processes of leaderization, personalization and mediatization of politics and their impact; the relationship between leadership construction and structural processes of reorganization of the contemporary politics (the crisis of the nation state, the crisis of representative democracy, the transformation of political parties, the evolution of the media system, the evolution of political cultures, the mutation of ideological systems).
- Of the analytical categories needed to move through the field of study: authority, power, influence, agency, persuasion, style, personality.
Applied knowledge and understanding skills
By the conclusion of the course of study, the student will also have acquired the critical capacity necessary to apply the acquired knowledge to the analysis of leadership styles, the classification of its types, the recognition and deconstruction of the discursive strategies adopted.
Autonomy of judgment
In particular, the student's ability to conduct a critical analysis of leadership styles and consensus-building strategies will be "coached", in the first part of the course, through the presentation and participatory discussion of selected case studies, in the second part of the course, through the construction of laboratory activities, individual and/or group, dedicated to the construction of an original model of political leadership and the simulation of its discursive strategies. These participatory teaching activities will contribute to the student's acquisition of the ability to independently evaluate and judge the complex processes underlying the construction of leadership, its social recognition and political action.
Communication skills.
Participation in face-to-face lectures and the student's active involvement in case study presentations and simulation laboratory activities will also help to implement his or her communication skills. In particular, the student will be able to use the scientific vocabulary of the sociology of political leadership, in oral exposition and writing; to discuss in public models, styles, and practices of political leadership and its articulations; to work in groups on the critical analysis and design of structured models of political leadership; to recognize and deconstruct narrative styles and strategies adopted by individual political actors and present in public discourse.
Ability to learn
At the end of the course, the student will have acquired the scientific maturity necessary to be able to independently deepen the study of the processes of construction and consolidation of political leadership, to be able to autonomously follow the progress of the scientific debate and to be able to autonomously update on the evolution of the scientific literature, including in the international context, on the topic of leadership and its declinations.
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Educational objectives The course aims to reconstruct the dynamics of political agenda construction in relation to the media system (news coverage). In today’s hybrid media system - marked by a growing disintermediation that allows for the multiplication of actors, the proliferation of communicative opportunities and a different distribution of power dynamics - the construction of the political agenda becomes a complex subject of study. If in the past, in fact, the political agenda was easily identifiable - both on the constitutive and expressive fronts - today, one cannot say as much, in light of the multiple actors, the different platforms involved and the complex relationships activated.
In an effort to clarify the complex relationships at work, the student will be provided with suitable tools to analyze, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, the following issues:
• agenda construction from the perspective of the actors involved (political actors, media actors, citizens, organized groups; ad hoc audiences);
• the construction of the agenda from the point of view of the issues, from the perspective of identifying their ownership or, if present, the networked dimension;
• agenda construction from the perspective of platforms and their specific affordances.
At the same time, students will be urged to identify ways of constructing coverage media taking into account the reference:
• to the journalistic logic properly understood, i.e., as proper to the model of journalism present;
• to the journalistic frames that preside over the narrative of politics;
• to the overall media logic understood as aimed at personalization, spectacularization and attention capture.
By the end of the course, the student will have acquired the capacity for critical analysis and empirical research on strategies for constructing and publicizing the political agenda. This ability will be further implemented through the presentation of concrete case studies designed to illustrate news management and communication management in times of crisis. The acquisition of this knowledge/skill will enable the building of a background that will allow the student the construction of solid research/reflections on the phenomenon under consideration.
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