This course is designed to give students a critical understanding of media literacy and mediatized environments in order to understand the role of media narratives in everyday interactions. You receive an extensive overview of the history of media theory from Plato’s allegory of the cave to Internet memes. The first focus is on media ecology: you gain insights into the eco-systems formed by institutions, individuals, and assemblages. The second focus area is critical posthumanism, feminism, and post-colonial studies: you learn to scrutinise the power relations formed by media stakeholders. Finally, you learn to evaluate human-technology-relations and interactions with nonhuman agents.

This course will be lecture-heavy. In order to complete the seminar, students are required to actively participate in discussions, work through the weekly readings, and submit a short essay (5-8 pages) on a topic of choice to demonstrate the media literacy acquired through the course.

The course syllabus including the readings will be handed out in the first lesson. Any possible changes will be communicated via base and via eMail.

Since this is a mandatory course for students in the Bachelor School for Transformation, students from other fields of study will be informed after the first session if they can take the course as well. Of course I will do everything to make this possible. Thank you for your understanding!