MODULE: Media and Religion (M-STO/07)
LANGUAGE: English
ECTS: 6
CURRENT YEAR: 2022/2023
TEACHER: Silvia Cristofori
E-MAIL ADDRESS: s.cristofori@unilink.it
CONSULTATION TIME: Consultation times take place after lessons
LEARNING OUTCOMES AND SKILLS:
The teaching module aims to increase knowledge of EU policies on both disinformation and freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It is in fact part of the “Jean Monnet” project FreeBeRI (“Freedom of belief and right to information”) funded by the European Union, which intends to raise awareness of the mutual dependence between freedom of religion and freedom of expression and information.
In this sense the module addresses:
1) the knowledge gap on the role and relevance of religious issues in the history of the EU;
2) the knowledge gap on European studies in Innovation and Digital Communication students;
3) the challenges of conspiracy theories by enhancing critical thinking skills and providing students with fundamental tools to recognize, analyze, debunk conspiracy theories as well as understand the reason for their success.
Accordingly, specific learning objectives are formulated following the Dublin descriptors with particular emphasis on:
a) the Dublin descriptor “knowledge and understanding”: knowing the EU policies on disinformation and freedom of religion and understanding the mutual dependence of these policies; know the current main theoretical interpretations of the relationship between conspiracy theories and religions; understand the connections and historical discontinuities between new conspiracy theories and old ones (with specific reference to the anti-Semitic propaganda falsification of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion); learn about the ways in which some eminent historians have interpreted fake news and conspiracy theories; b) the Dublin descriptor “applying knowledge and understanding”: being able to apply the methodological notions, provided by the module, to different types of sources (including Internet ones) contextualising, analyzing and interpreting them;
c) the Dublin descriptor “making rulings”: being able to use the methodological tools provided by the course to recognise, understand, analyze and debunk conspiracy theories.
Method:
The teaching methodology adopted by the course is intended to allow students to achieve the training objectives at least satisfactorily (18 p.). The lessons, in fact, will take place in three ways:
frontal lessons in which the teacher will illustrate the topics and tools provided by the module;
peer learning in the form of a laboratory in which students will apply the notions and methodological tools of the module by comparing themselves with different types of sources;
Flipped classroom through which students will learn to present their analysis of different types of sources, based on the notions and tools of the module.
During lessons, students are expected to: actively contribute to class discussions and the laboratory; write a short article; give at least one presentation.
The active participation of students allows for continuous verification of their educational progress, which will be carried out through performance evaluation according to the same criteria for determining the grade adopted for the final exam (see below). This process also allows the teacher to better address the specific learning and training needs of students during the course.
Furthermore, FreeBeRI carries out a series of research activities and dissemination events regarding the topics of the teaching module. These activities/events aim to be a stimulating and rich learning environment in which students are actively involved as listeners, speakers and/or discussants and have the opportunity to interact with the research network provided by FreeBeRI.
PROGRAM
The topics covered by the module are the following:
– a terminological framework: disinformation/disinformation, fake news, conspiracy theories, post-truth;
– current conspiracy theories between secular skepticism and spiritual salvation;
– a long-standing conspiracy theory: the anti-Semitic propaganda falsification of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion;
– writing the history of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: The Prague Cemetery by Eco (2010) and its reception in religiously oriented newspapers;
– true, false, fictitious, fake news and conspiracy theories according to Marc Bloch and Carlo Ginzburg;
– mutual trust between freedom of religion and freedom of expression and information, as indicated by the EU guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief (art. 31), by the EU guidelines and by mandate of the EU special envoy on the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the European Union (articles 10, 21, 21), as provided for by the European Convention on Human Rights, the Charter of Rights Fundamentals and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
– current EU tools against disinformation: the functions of the Strategic Communications Division of the European External Action Service (EEAS); The EU Code of Practice on Disinformation (2018); EU Action Plan against Disinformation (2018); EU Code of Conduct on Countering Illicit Hate Speech (2019); the East StratComTask Force, the Rapid Alert System.
In order to provide students with the methodological tools relating to the topics of the module, a laboratory will be carried out throughout the course which will focus on the tools of the “historian’s profession” to contextualise, analyze and interpret the sources. The practical exercises of the workshop will be created by the teacher or taken from the sources listed below (see Tools) and will aim to learn to recognise, understand, analyze and debunk conspiracy theories.
ASSESSMENT METHOD
Students will take an oral exam. The exam will begin with a discussion of the paper or presentations prepared by the student during the course. At the end of the discussion the student must be able to answer questions on all the topics covered in the module and on the compulsory texts.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
The exam aims to evaluate the acquisition and correct use of:
a)the basics of EU policies on disinformation and religious freedom; current fundamental theoretical understandings of the relationship between conspiracy theories and religions; the fundamental similarities and differences between the new conspiracy theories and the old ones (with specific reference to the falsification of the anti-Semitic propaganda of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion); the fundamental ways in which some eminent historians have interpreted fake news and conspiracy theories (“knowledge and understanding”);
b) a basic methodological framework useful for understanding different types of sources (including Internet sources) by contextualising, analyzing and interpreting them (“applying knowledge and understanding”);
c) the basic theoretical and methodological tools provided by the course to recognise, understand, analyze and debunk conspiracy theories (“express judgements”). ASSESSMENT CRITERIA The student’s overall performance will be assessed from 18 (satisfactory grade) to 30 (excellent).
To measure the achievement of the training objectives, the determination of the final test grade will be based on the following criteria: a) “knowledge and understanding” (MIN.: 6 – MAX.: 10 points); b) “application of knowledge and understanding” (MIN.: 6 – MAX.: 10 points); c) “express judgements” (MIN.: 6 – MAX: 10 p.).
READING LIST
Required books/chapters/articles to study:
Bloch Marc, Reflections of a historian on the false news of the war, «Michigan War Studies Review», 2013 [1921], pp. 1-11, trans. from the French by James P. Holoka.
Bloch Marc, The historian’s profession, Knopf, New York, 1953 [1949], trans. from the French by Peter Putnam. Dyrendal Asbiørn, Robertson David G., Asprem Egil (eds.), Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion, Brill, Leiden – Boston 2019 (Chapters: 1 “Conspiracy Theories and the Study of Religion(s): What we are Talking about” , and why it matters”; 2 “Rational spells: conspiracy theory between secular skepticism and spiritual salvation”).
Giusti Serena, Piras Elisa (ed.), Democracy and fake news: manipulation of information and post-truth politics, (chapters: Introduction. In search of paradigms: disinformation, fake news and post-truth politics ; 13 Radical right-wing political activism on the Web and the challenge for European democracy; 16 The EU code of conduct on disinformation and the risk of privatization of censorship).
Ginzburg Carlo, Threads and traces. True False Fiction, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2012 [2006], trans. from the Italian by Anne C. Tedeschi and John Tedeschi (chapters: 1 “Description and quotation”, 10 “Representing the enemy: on the French prehistory of protocols”).
N.B. Students who do not attend class or give at least one presentation and write a short article will also need to study this book:
– Roy Olivier, Holy Ignorance. When religion and culture separate, Oxford University Press, Oxford–London 2013 [2008], trans. from the French by Ros Schwartz.
Readings:
– Recommended: Boltanski Luc, Mysteries and Conspiracies, Detective Stories, Spy Novels and the Making of Modern Societies,Polity Press, Cambridge 2014 (chapters: 1, 5, 6). – Recommended: Eco Umberto, How to Write a Thesis, MIT, Cambridge – London 2015 [1977] (trans. from the Italian by Caterina Mongiat Farina and Geoff Farina).
– Required: Eco Umberto, The Prague Cemetery, Bompiani, Milan 2010 (trans. from the Italian by Richard Dixon, The Prague Cemetery, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston 2011).
– Recommended: Wu Ming 1, The Q of Quomplotto. QAnnon and surrounding areas. How conspiracy fantasies defend the system, Alegre, Rome 2021.
Newspaper reviews (online or provided by the teacher):
– Di Segni Riccardo, The book – The cemetery of Prague: Unanswered questions, «Jewish pages», n. November 11, 2010, pp. 28-31.
– Foa Anna, The book – The Prague cemetery: The deadly forgery machine, «Jewish pages», n. November 11, 2010, pp. 28-29.
– Newberger Goldstein Rebecca, Umberto Eco and the wise men of Zion, «The New York Times», <https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/books/review/the-prague-cemetery- by-umberto -eco-book-review.html>
– Taguieff Pierre-André (interviewed by Paoli Paul-François), “Eco peut-il écrire ce qu’il veut? ”, 17/03/2011, «Le Figaro». <https://www.lefigaro.fr/livres/2011/03/17/03005-20110317ARTFIG00477-eco-peut-il-ecrire-ce-qu-il-veut.php>
– Scaraffia Lucetta, The Voyeur of evil, «Osservatore Romano», 30 October 2010.
– Vitale Guido, Umberto Eco: “I expose the plots of those who build hatred”. Anti-Semitism and the factory of fakes. The most successful Italian intellectual tells Pagine Ebraiche about his new book, «Pagine Ebraiche», n. November 11, 2010, pp. 6-9.
– Volli Ugo, The book – The cemetery of Prague: The poison of the snake. A denunciation of anti-Semitism that juggles with dangerous materials, «Jewish pages», n. November 11, 2010, pp. 30-31.
Services:
– Bourbaki Nicoletta – Research collective on historical fakes, (edited),Who says this? And why? A guide for the critical use of sources outside and inside the web. With examples and proposals for teaching exercises, 2018 <https://fdocumenti.com/document/ questo-chi-lo-dice-e-perche-newspdf-insegnare-a-rapportarsi -critically.html>;
– https://eavi.eu/beyond-headlines-online-news-verification-game /