Prerequisits

There are no specific prerequisites for participating in this course and completing its requirements. However, prior knowledge of basic theories of media, memory, and history is recommended, as it will facilitate understanding of the topics discussed and enable active participation in discussions and practical tasks. Students should be prepared to analyse complex texts and engage in research activities.

Content (syllabus outline)

1. Media and technology: from speech to pixel

• Speech, writing and print,
• Media images,
• Mass and electronic media,
• Digital media and the third orality.

2. Representation of the past in visual media in 20th and 21st centuries

• Print, photography and cinema,
• Radio and television,
• Internet and mobile devices.

3. Newness of new media in historical perspective

• The “new” paradigm,
• Liberating potential of the new,
• Utopia and new media.

4. Media archaeology: between material and code

• Media archaeology,
• Digital archives,
• Narratives and popcultural references.

Readings

• Danah Boyd, It’s Complicated, The Social Lives of Networked Teens, Yale University Press, 2014.
• Peter Burke Asa Briggs, Social History of the Media, Polity Press, 2010.
• Nick Couldry, Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice, Polity Press, 2012.
• Jose van Dijck, Culture of Connectivity, A Critical History of Social Media, Oxford University Press, 2013.
• Jose van Dijck, Mediated Memories in the Digital Age, Stanford University Press, 2007.
• Wolfgang Ernst, Digital Memory and the Archive, University of Minnessota Press, 2012.
• Stig Hjarvard, The Mediatization of Culture and Society, Routledge, 2013.
• Paul Hodkinson, Media, Culture and Society, Sage Publications, 2001.
• Erkki Huhtamo in Jussi Parikka, Media Archaeology, Approaches, Applications and Implications, University of California Press, 2011.
• Henry Jenkins (ed.), Convergence Culture: where old and new media collide. New York University Press, 2006.
• V. Reed, Digitized Lives: Culture, Power, and Social Change in the Internet Era, Sage Publications, 2014.
• Colin Sparks (with Anna Reading), Communism, Capitalism and the Mass Media, Sage, 1998.

Objectives and competences

The objective of this course is to explore issues of memory and history through technologies of mediating the past in media environments. The focus is on individual and everyday memory practices in the time of ubiquitous connectivity, with a particular emphasis on Southeastern Europe. The course offers a broader historical framework for the emergence, establishment, and dominance of various media technologies and their impact on the development and functioning of society and culture.

Students will learn basic paradigms of media studies, media archaeology, and the history of technology, and will acquire the knowledge and tools to identify and evaluate various sources in the interpretation of the past. Through the analysis of technological aspects and audiovisual and textual media content, the course provides an analytical framework for researching and understanding the broader historical, social, and cultural aspects of living in a media-mediated society.

Intended learning outcomes

Students will use the knowledge acquired in the course to produce a scientific contribution that can serve as a draft of a dissertation chapter or a research article. In doing so, they will develop the ability to critically analyse and interpret media practices and enhance their academic writing skills, contributing to their scientific and professional development.

Learning and teaching methods

Types of learning/teaching:

• Frontal teaching,
• Independent student work,
• e-learning.

Teaching methods:

• Explanation,
• Conversation, discussion, debate,
• Work with texts.

Assessment

• Long written assignments (80 %),
• Final examination (written/oral) (20 %).