Vent'anni di scienza dei media: un confronto tra la letteratura italiana e internazionale

The aim of the article is to analyze the theoretical status of media studies or - how we define them in Italy - communication sciences. The analysis is actually based on a partial survey and grounded in bibliographical data provided by Google Books. Nonetheless such an elementary analysis can provide an insight into some tendencies of Italian research, and namely the irregular evolution of critical theory, the preponderance of quantitative surveys, the suspect connection between academy and market, and even a few specific flaws of our system.