The media rhetoric of the ‘dismantled university’: Rome students from protests to clashes

The paper proposes a journalistic representation of the ‘destroyed university’ fostered by student protests held in Rome in reference to the approval of Law 240/2010 in December 2010 and during the conference event ‘After the conference: Italian University, European University?’, at the Sapienza University of Rome on March 14, 2017. The opposition to Minister Fedeli and clashes with the police are the result of some students’ awareness of the drawbacks of our universities, allegedly bound to be ‘destroyed’ and ‘dismantled’ by the so-called Gelmini reform. To the fore is the incoming process of rationalization of our universities mainly fueled by Law no. 240/2010, whose approval caused so much unrest in Rome. The clashes between government and student movements drew major media attention, in Italy and beyond, at it is possible to demonstrate through the journalistic accounts posted by Ansa and Andkronos in 2017, by cnn in 2010 and The Economist in 2008. It is worth noticing the prominence of the sampled articles on the Internet and their invaluable analysis of the endeavor carried out by Italian Universities. In the background are the media’s representation of the difficulties of our universities, encumbered by the limits of turnover and cutbacks. Thus, the ‘dismantled university’ turns into a propaganda slogan fueled by political and ideological meaning also linked to the complexity of our high education system, in accordance with a definite sociological framework.