Factual entertainment and the writing of reality

accademic year 2019/2020

teaching form
year of study: I
type of teaching: BASIC
scientific disciplinary area: L-ART/06
credits: 8
cycle: II semestral
frontal teaching hours: 64
hours detail: 64

educational goals

The course aims to focus the concept of non-fiction television format within the contemporary media ecosystem, both from an editorial and linguistic point of view, and from the production-distribution one.
In particular, the macro-area of factual entertainment will be investigated, for its centrality in the television scene, in terms of: research and thematic-linguistic innovation, hybridization and im-plementation extension.
The goal is to provide a critical systematization of some of the most relevant trends in the televi-sion system:
• re-definition of the television genres system
• consolidation of an alternative approach of the treatment of the reality: il factual as a new alternative and complementary form of storytelling, to that of pure fiction, from stories to histories of life.
• satisfaction of the entertainment needs of the public through forms and languages that are antagonistic to those classic formulas (show, comedy panel.)
The expected learning outcomes include: knowledge of the treatment logic of reality, based on editorial strategies and target satisfaction needs; ability to recognize of the format codes; ability to analyze the television product textually and to place it with respect to the publishing offer and the socio-cultural reference system; ability to recognize the different factual entertainment forms

prerequisites
No prerequisites are required.

Course Contents
The course will analyze the following topics specifically :
- concept and function evolution of the television format (approx 20 hours):
definition and basic taxonomy, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic organization; logics of transformation and hybridization; overcoming boundaries and mutual in-teraction between the categories; relationship with the editorial, productive and target identity of the programming areas
- positioning of real entertainment within the genre system (approx 20 hours):
basic taxonomic organization; evolution of gender and languages; thematic and functional overlaps and substitutions with respect to traditional genres (in particu-lar shows and fiction); meeting the needs of the public;

- representation of the reality (approx 24 hours): construction of alternative sto-rytelling forms (docu-reality, docu-fiction); diversity management; limits and boundaries of reality management

Teaching methods:
The educational objectives of the course will be achieved through the lectures (for a total of 64 hours).

Learning verification
The final learning assessment includes a compulsory written test for all (without the aid of notes or books), assessed in thirtieths, with 6 open questions on the texts in the bibliog-raphy. Each of the open questions is aimed at verifying the knowledge of the publishing, production and economic system of contemporary serial fiction, and is evaluated for a maximum of 5 points.
There is also the possibility (OPTIONAL) to develop an ongoing test, which consists of a paper analyzing a factual entertainment product (to be delivered, in digital format, by e-mail, by the end of the lessons: 10 pages approx., 3000 characters each);
the modalities of the paper will be illustrated during the lessons

The in itinere test replaces the preparation of the chosen text in the list and therefore one of the open questions of the written test.
In this case, the open questions of the written test are each assessed for a maximum of 6 points, and the paper (assessed on a scale of thirties) will consider the analytical capaci-ty and editorial placement of a factual entertainment product (60%) and capacity to ade-quately motivate statements and judgments (40%).

The final grade will come from the average between the grade obtained in the writt