LIBRI DI ELISA FARINA

The transformative processes that have involved the academic world for more than two decades have been accelerated and renewed in the wake of the Sars Covid-19 Pandemic. Universities, already oriented towards the promotion of smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, have nevertheless been called upon to rethink and reshape the services, projects and methodological approaches previously developed. The aim of this paper is to describe a qualitative study carried out within the Tutoring Online Program (TOP), designed to respond to the new demands brought to light by the pandemic. After outlining the innovative characteristics of TOP, where the tutors are volunteer university students and the tutees are secondary school students, the results of the qualitative research are presented. The aim of the survey is to identify the elements which, in the perception of the tutors and tutees, may have supported, or on the contrary limited, the creation of a meaningful relationship developed entirely online.

This interview retraces and broadens some of the key concepts that Professor David Buckingham highlighted during his lecture Media and cultural education in the age of digital capitalism that he gave at the conference DAMS. Ieri, Oggi e Domani (April 22-24th, 2021) organized within the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Drama, Art and Music Studies program (DAMS) at the University of Bologna. David Buckingham is an internationally recognized leading expert on children’s and young people’s interactions with electronic media, and on media literacy education. He was the founder and director of the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media and has been a consultant for UNESCO, the United Nations, Unicef, the European Commission, Ofcom, and the UK government for several years.

The increasingly pervasive mediatization of our daily lives has led to pervasive media consumption and increased production and sharing of data and information. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, media education has been transformed into an all-encompassing category that was asked to fulfill the needs and expectations pertaining to other disciplines. This progressive extension of the area of expertise of media education requires to rethink its research focus, its intervention practices in educational environments, and its regulation at the State level in order to guarantee its full legitimacy and recognition both inside and outside the schooling system.