Course content

New information and communication technologies (ICTs) constitute an abundance of new opportunities in people’s lives, with regard to work and everyday activities. How have the development of the mobile phone and the Internet changed how people communicate and how they relate to each other?

The course builds on humanistic and social studies of ICT with an emphasis on user perspectives. The main focus will be on the development and use of digital interactive media like mobile phones and the Internet, including online computer games as well as more new arenas for digital interaction and communication, like e-mail, facebook, twitter, etc. Technological development is also scrutinized in relation to larger societal issues like power, control, quality of life, information and democracy.

The course will teach students to analyze social and cultural processes of changes related to ICTs. The course is based on lectures as well as practice-based exercises where the students will engage in critical analysis of their own as well as others use of new ICTs, and also of the media debate about new ICTs.

The course is also open to BA students from other programmes of study .

Learning outcome

The main objective is to give the students a theoretical understanding of the connection between technological change and cultural and societal changes.

The additional aim of this course is to increase the students understanding of how technological change and cultural change are reciprocal processes that affect social relations as well as the understanding of selves.

Learning methods and activities

Students will be assessed on the basis of a home exam. The course is an undergraduate elective in media studies towards a BA in Art, Media and Communication.

Credit reductions