Communication Studies in Italy: the case of Bologna and the role of Semiotic Studies

Over the last 15 years, Italian universities have seen an enormous development in Communication Studies programmes, further enhanced by the implementation of the so-called Bologna process (after 1999). The University of Bologna introduced its first Programme in Communication Science in 1993, following several other universities throughout Italy (Siena, Torino, Roma "La Sapienza", and Salerno). Umberto Eco, at that time full professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna, played a fundamental role in shaping the five-year programme. After 1999, when the Bologna agreement was signed by the European Ministers of Higher Education, the Programme underwent many modifications leading to its current organization. The article describes the development of the programme over the last ten years, focusing on the role played by Semiotics as both a general theory of signification and a methodology for analysing mediated discourses.