In this blog I will collect all my academic work, conference participations and teaching materials, in the field of sociology of cultural processes.
The blog is conceived as a sort of window on my passions.
My research concerns sociology of digital cultures, sociology of sport, mediology of literature and comics, Media Theory.
In the coming months I will gradually load all the materials.
Enjoy the reading!
Mario Tirino
Last March 26th, together with Luca Bifulco (University of Naples “Federico II”) and Simona Castellano (University of Salerno), we presented the paper AD10S: Death, Memory, and Cult of Diego Armando Maradona in his Fandom on Facebook, at the Midterm Conference of the Research Network 28 (Society and Sport) of the European Sociology Association, entitled Sport and Crisis: Bodies, Practices, and Representations.
Here is the video of our presentation:
The conference abstract book can be accessed here:
Finally, any other information about the conference can be read at the official website https://www.esasocietyandsports-midtermconference.com/.
Starting with my book Postspettatorialità. L’esperienza del cinema nell’era digitale [Postspectatorship: The Cinema Experience in the Digital Age] (Meltemi, 2020), last March 24 I gave a lecture-seminar entitled Postspettatori. Esperienza, cinema e media digitali [Postspectators. Experience, Cinema, and Digital Media” [Postspectators: Experience, Cinema, and Digital Media] to the course of Sociology of New Media (Professor Antonella Mascio) at the University of Bologna.
The mini-cycle of seminars Lo specchio scuro. Black Mirror e la civiltà digitale [Black Mirror and Digital Civilization], organized by the course in Television and New Media and by the Study Center “Media Culture Society” of the Department of Political and Social Studies of the University of Salerno, was held on March 24 and 26.
The seminar starts from the book I riflessi di Black Mirror [The reflections of Black Mirror] (Rogas, 2018), edited by Mario Tirino and Antonio Tramontana.
The event was attended by Massimiliano Locanto, Gino Frezza, Antonella Mascio, Simona Castellano, Vincenzo Del Gaudio, Adolfo Fattori, Mario Tirino, Lorenzo Di Paola.
Scientific direction by Mario Tirino.
You can view the first seminar (March 24) here:
Here the second seminar (March 26):
Last February 28 was published in the academic journal Fata Morgana Web a short essay of mine, titled Pandemia e insurrezione [Pandemic and Insurrection] in which I took up in a sociological critical key the analysis of the main dystopian elements of the sci-fi novel The Bladerunner (1974) by Alan E. Nourse.
The essay can be read online here: https://www.fatamorganaweb.it/medicorriere-di-alan-nourse/.
This work is part of the special issue n. 16 of “Fata Morgana Web”, entitled Distopie narrative [Narrative Dystopias] and edited by Angela Maiello (University of Calabria) and Marco Pedroni (University of Ferrara), with other essays dedicated to Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Michele Marzulli), White Noise by Don Delillo (Federico Chicchi), Fatherland by Robert Harris and The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (Mauro Ferraresi), Minority Report by Philip K. Dick (Ercole Giap Parini) and The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Marco Pedroni).
Today (h. 14.30/18) I gave the talk Black Athletes Matter. Sport, devianza e rappresentazioni mediali degli atleti afroamericani [Black Athletes Matter. Sport, deviance and media representations of African American athletes], at the third and last meeting of the seminar Filmologia, Comunicazione e Sociologia dello Sport [Filmology, Communication and Sociology of Sport], whose theme was Devianza e integrazione [Deviance and Integration]. I talked with Matteo Cardinali (University of Perugia), Isabella Corvino (University of Perugia), Vincenzo Del Gaudio (University of Salerno), Eduardo Lubrano (journalist), Giuseppe Albeggiani (manager).
The seminar was organized by the University of Perugia (Department of Medicine, Degree Course in Science and Techniques of Motor Activity).
It was an excellent opportunity to describe how, until the 1980s and 1990s, American White society, in many cases, followed strategies of medial construction of deviance for black professional athletes. In addition, I analyzed the film He Got Game (1998) as an attempt to revise dominant cultural discourses regarding the deviance of black athletes: rather than focusing on reinforcing racial stereotypes associated with individual bias, director Spike Lee highlights the social and economic roots of deviant behavior.
This afternoon (2.30 p.m. – 5.30 p.m., Teams platform) I will be a guest of the “Phenomenology and seriality” course (professors Adolfo Fattori and Gianfranco Pecchinenda) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples for the seminar Dinamiche seriali. Fra postspettatorialità e story ending [Serial dynamics. Between postspectatorship and story ending], with my dear colleague Emanuela Piga Bruni (Universitas Mercatorum).
Starting from the monograph Postspettatorialità. L’esperienza del cinema nell’era digitale [Postspectatorship. The Cinema Experience in the Digital Age] (Meltemi Editore, 2020), my paper is entitled Siamo ancora spettatori? La forma culturale del cinema, i mediashock e le audience attive dell’era digitale [Are we still spectators? The cultural form of cinema, media shocks and active audiences in the digital era].
The volume Oltre l’adattamento? Narrazioni espanse: intermedialità, transmedialità, virtualità [Beyond Adaptation? Expanded Narratives: Intermediality, Transmediality, Virtuality] (il Mulino, 2020), edited by Massimo Fusillo, Mirko Lino, Lucia Faienza and Lorenzo Marchese, has just been published.
Inside you can read my essay Marchio di serie. L’authorship contesa nell’ecosistema narrativo di Gomorra [Trademark of Series: Contested Authorship in the Narrative Ecosystem of Gomorrah].
The book also contains essays by Gino Frezza, Mirko Lino, Gianluigi Rossini, Emanuela Piga Bruni, Federico Zecca, Giancarlo Grossi, Beatrice Seligardi, Emiliano Morreale, Anna Chiara Corradino, Enrico Fantini, Lorenzo Marchese, and Lucia Faienza.
On Monday 11 January (h. 14.30 – 16.30) I held a seminar entitled La mediatizzazione dello sport [The mediatization of sport] at the course of Pedagogia e sociologia nelle scienze motorie (Pedagogy and sociology in motor sciences) at the University of Pisa. I would like to thank Prof. Enrico Campo for the kind invitation and the students for their participation.
In issue 18 of the scientific journal “Cinergie. Il cinema e le altre arti” Alberto Brodesco (University of Trento) wrote a long, sharp and flattering review of my book Postspettatorialità. L’esperienza del cinema nell’era digitale [Postspectatorship: The Cinema Experience in the Digital Age] (Meltemi, 2020).
The review can be read or downloaded at https://cinergie.unibo.it/article/view/11901/12028?fbclid=IwAR2iC4-YWcDUbDXWxW6E9BVcXzHgMB4Q0VgGXADHKEACf4bioy8qF5DPjSc.
On December 24 was published by the magazine Rivista Milena my review of the novel Il paradiso degli interstizi [The paradise of interstices] (Inknot, 2020) by Gianfranco Pecchinenda. The review, entitled Il vuoto e la vertigine. La letteratura come medicamento ne ‘Il paradiso degli interstizi’ di Gianfranco Pecchinenda [The void and vertigo. Literature as medicine in ‘The paradise of the interstices’], can be read at: http://www.rivistamilena.it/2020/12/24/il-vuoto-e-la-vertigine-la-letteratura-come-medicamento-ne-il-paradiso-degli-interstizi-di-gianfranco-pecchinenda/.
MARIO TIRINO 