Maria Teresa Prat mariateresa'pratunito'it

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Maria Teresa Prat mariateresa.prat_at_unito.it

• Office hours Tuesday 4-6 pm, Palazzo Nuovo, Room
  22,
• 3rd floor, tel. [phone]

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LINGUA INGLESE, 2nd YEAR, 43/S, 2008-9, 30 HOURS,
5 CREDITS The image(s) of Italy in the press
in English

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CONTENTS AND AIMS OF THE COURSE

• The course will observe the ways in which the
  image of present-day Italy has been created in
  a representative selection of articles in
  newspapers and magazines published in 2007-2008
  in English-speaking countries (mainly Great
  Britain and the USA), thus encouraging
  intercultural awareness.
• The aim is to make the students familiar with the
  notable and evolving - tradition of Anglo-Saxon
  journalism and aware of the aspects of
  present-day Italy that are being considered
  "newsworthy" by journalists of politically and
  culturally diverse newspapers and magazines.

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SYLLABUS

• 12-11- 2008 Introduction to the course.
  Brainstorming on How to keep in touch with
  what is happening in the world
• 17-11-2008 UNIT 1 The role of
  journalism in modern societies some open
  questions
• 18-11-2008 UNIT 2 The tradition of the
  press in Great Britain
• 19-11-2008 UNIT 3 The tradition of the
  press in the USA
• 24-11-2008 UNIT 4 The paper format
  versus the electronic format
• 25-11-2008 UNIT 5 Newspaper genres
  news-stories/ editorials / feature articles
• 26-11-2008 UNIT 6 Main features of the
  language of journalism and analysis of some
  selected articles about Italy
• 1-12-2008 follows
• 3-12-2008 follows
• 2-12-2008 follows
• 9.12-2008 How to build and analyse a
  corpus of newspaper articles (dott. Caimotto)
• 10-12-2008 follows
• 15-12-2008 follows
• 16-12-2008 follows
• 17-12-2008 Conclusion

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Exam programme

• The final exam will be oral and will
  evaluate
• the students familiarity with the most important
  aspects of both the tradition and the present
  situation of British and American journalism,
  with special attention to on-line editions.
• their ability to understand a corpus of TWELVE
  articles dealing with Italy, and published from
  December 2007 to December 2008, in order to
  critically discuss the stylistic choices that
  have been made to present a certain image of
  Italy to a foreign audience. See the dossier of
  NINE articles downloadable from the website.
  Students are required to add THREE articles of
  their own choice.
• their use of clear, correct and fluent English,
  which is appropriate to the contents of the
  course.
• The final evaluation will include the result of
  the 2nd year prova propedeutica.
• The students who will have attended the course
  regularly (at least 12 meetings out of 15) and
  taken active part in the discussion, will be
  entitled to write a final paper based on a small
  corpus of articles, and discuss it during the
  final exam.

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Prova Propedeutica 43/S  

• COURSES OFFERED
• 1st semester 
•  Monday 14 16 GORR 5 Spencer
• Thursday 8 10 CLIFU 4 MacWilliam
• Thursday 10 12 CLIFU 2 Hirst
• Friday10 12 CLIFU 2 Ulmann
• Remedial/tutorial activities will be offered by
  dr. Luke Seaber starting in December 2008 ( see
  the notice that will be posted on the Lettorati
  website)

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Prova propedeutica

• Only students who have passed the first year exam
  will be admitted . If you have attended at least
  70 of lessons, you must send the following to
  your teacher at least two weeks before the exam
• A 500 word mini-conference paper either be an
  abstract for a larger research project (your
  graduation thesis or a re-working of your
  undergraduate degree thesis), a thoroughly
  researched summary of one of the courses you have
  attended during your postgraduate studies or an
  analytical presentation of your work placement.
  It must be fully referenced, using either the MLA
  or the Chicago style.
• Any visual material with which you intend to
  support your exam presentation e.g. a
  power-point presentation, or handouts.
• Students who are unable to attend a course in the
  first semester should contact Shan Hirst
  (shan.hirst_at_unito.it) at least one month before
  the exam date and send her their paper.
  Non-attenders will only be allowed to do the exam
  in January if they have special permission from a
  teacher.

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Oral presentation

• For the purposes of the oral exam, students
  should try to form thematically-linked conference
  panels. They should present their panel topic
  and introduce each other. Each student should
  give an oral presentation of their mini-paper.
  Presentations should last no longer than 5
  minutes. Students are allowed to keep a copy of
  their paper in front of them as they give their
  presentation, but presentations should be neither
  read aloud nor memorised. The presentations will
  be followed by a question-and-answer session,
  during which students should answer questions
  from fellow panel members and from examiners.
• Students who have attended at least 70 of
  lessons will receive a merit mark.

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MY WEBSITE

• http//www.personalweb.unito.it/mariateresa.prat/

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References for both attenders and non-attenders

• The course contents (see the slides on
  http//www.personalweb.unito.it/mariateresa.prat)
  
• Primary sources the dossier of articles about
  Italy
• Secondary sources
• Danuta Reah, The language of newspapers,
  Routledge 1998,
• Allan Bell, The language of news media,
  Blackwell, 1991, pp.155-160
• For the history of the Anglo-Saxon press, see
  encyclopaedias such as The Britannica and some
  useful websites such as
• http//www.newspaperinnovation.com.php/about-free-
  dailies dedicated to free daily newspapers
• http//www.bl.uk/collections/britnews.html A
  concise history of the British newspaper since
  1620 is available on the British library website
• http//www.newspapersoc.org.uk contains a survey
  of the history of British newspapers.
  http//www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2007 a report
  on the State of the News Media in the USA, 2007
• And the websites of the most important newspapers
  mentioned in the slides
• See also Links to Global Information on the web
  (dott. M. C. Caimotto) http//www.personalweb.unit
  o.it/mariacristina.caimotto/online20news20links.
  htm

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Dossier of articles

• Ian Fisher, In a funk, Italy sings an aria of
  disappointment, The New York Times, December 13,
  2007
• Richard Owen, La dolce vita turns sour as Italy
  faces up to being old and poor, The Times,
  December 22, 2007
• Elisabetta Povoledo, Tutta la vita davanti
  All-Italy is singing the call-center blues,
  International Herald Tribune, 10 april 2008
• Guy Dinmore, Italys left warns of
  authoritarism , The Financial Times, 20 June
  2008
• Richard Owen, Why Italians may find it tricky to
  master the English Language , Times online, June
  21 2008
• John Hooper, Italy declares Pompeii a state of
  emergency, The Guardian, 5 July 2008
• Peter Popham Tourists beware if its fun,
  Italy has a law against it, The Independent, 17
  August 2008
• Gisela Williams In Turin, the Olympic glow
  hasnt yet faded, The New York Times October 19,
  2008
• 9 Rachel Donadio, Obama Joke by Premier
  Has Italy in an Uproar, The New York Times
• November 8, 2008
• 3 selected by each student

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INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE some open questions

• How to keep in touch with what is happening in
  the world?
• What are the pros and cons of newspapers versus
  other media?
• What is a newspaper?
• Who reads the newspapers?
• What is news?
• Who owns the Press?
• Who pays for the newspapers?
• Can/should newspapers be impartial and objective?