The course is aimed at: - providing a coherent knowledge of the issues, concepts, and practices of political communication; - providing analytical tools on the actors of political communication (parties, social movements, active citizenship, non-formal associations); - providing a basic knowledge of the processes of transformation of the public sphere, also in relation to the development of digital capitalism; - providing the basic tools for studying the digital communication ecosystem and its relations with democracy; - providing good knowledge of the forms of online political communication and media activism; - providing basic methods for political communication practices. Attendance at the lectures is compulsory. In view of the laboratory nature of the course, it is also strongly recommended. The course will be organised in an enquiry-based; perspective.

Dublin descriptors Students should achieve: A) Knowledge and ability to understand: the forms and processes of political communication, through the acquisition of theoretical competencies on the theories and models of the discipline, also in relation to the critical approaches of media studies. A) Knowledge and understanding: of the forms and processes of political communication, through the acquisition of theoretical skills on the theories and models of the discipline, also in relation to the critical approaches of media studies. Students acquire this basic knowledge by attending lectures and studying the texts provided by the lecturer and discussed in the classroom. B) Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: through the ability to analyse the relationships between political campaigning practices and models of analysis of the public sphere, applying the main methodologies of analysis from media studies. Skills acquired through laboratory exercises in class. C) Judgment: critical reflection on the evolutionary dynamics of the relationship between social and political participation and transformations of the public sphere, also in the light of the development of digital platforms. This judgment will have to be applied in the classroom with the teacher and the colleagues, during the exercises, and in the preparation of the classroom activities. D) Communication skills: students are called upon to interact in the classroom by means of questions, exchanges with fellow students, writing short presentations, and illustrating the proposed texts. This skill is practiced in the classroom by organising discussion and practice sessions. E) Learning ability: students are asked to adopt a critical learning method capable of connecting theoretical competencies and empirical analysis, aiming at the specification of autonomous thought, also thanks to the adoption of a collaborative learning; perspective. Skills to be enhanced through argumentation with the teacher and fellow students

Media and democracy Transformations of the public sphere Information disorder Citizenship and participation Polarisation and incivility Platforms and fringe democracy Pop politics and populism Leadership and credibility Engagement and big data Persuasion, manipulation, propaganda, nudging and spin Digital participation Digital parties Celebrity politics and fan democracy Crisis communication

Bentivegna, S., Campus, D., Valeriani, A. (2024). La comunicazione politica contemporanea. Bologna: Il Mulino. Other materials distributed in Luiss Learn platform.

The course includes lectures with the use of multimedia presentations and workshops based on role-playing, simulation, and classroom presentations. Weeks 1-4: Fundamentals of the discipline. Weeks 5-10: a theoretical session + a workshop session for the development and simulation of a political campaign (of a party, a leader or a movement). Students will break up into small groups to construct a campaign on the basis of the indications given from week to week. Weeks 11-12: Presentation of the campaigns to the rest of the class.

Consistent with the Luiss educational model, the learning assessment method consists of two aspects: - 1/3 continuous assessment, mainly based on class and laboratory activities; - 2/3 oral final examination. The assessment will take into account the following parameters: ability to autonomously organise an analysis of a case study; ability to critically reason about the study carried out; quality of exposition; competence in the use of specialist vocabulary; ability to relate what has been learnt in the field to theoretical concepts.

Topics Topics should be proposed to and discussed with the teachers. The thesis work will be supervised by the teacher(s) Requirements Priority requirements - interest in research on political communication, empirical studies on political mobilisation, analysis of the relations between media and intermediate bodies (parties, trade unions, movements), studies on populism, research on the digital ecosystem - ability to master texts in English - the basic ability to use the main methods of social research (communication and political research) - adequate knowledge of the fundamentals of sociology, sociology of communication, and political science To obtain the thesis you must submit a written project including research methodology, accompanied by a (provisional) table of contents and a minimum basic bibliography.