COMMRC 1020 - DIGITAL MEDIA STUDIES

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
In an increasingly technologized world, it can be tempting to view technologies as the driving forces of social, political, and cultural change. Media theorist, Marshall McLuhan even said famously that 'the medium is the message,' meaning that how we receive communication messages inform our interpretations of those messages deeply. Such 'technological determinism' sees history as related closely with invention. In digital media studies we will examine the historical and technological developments that have altered communication in contemporary time. But we will also consider the many ways that technological artifacts reflect beliefs, values, assumptions, and conflicts of the societies in which they are created and used. In doing so we aim to achieve both analytic and appreciative understanding of the digital media that propagate modern communication. We will look historically at technologies as forces of influence, opportunity, division, and constraint. We will study digital media with critical and constructive lenses. We will produce digital artifacts of our own by using existing web-based tools with a goal of becoming creators in addition to consumers of digital media.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis
Course Requirements: PREQ: COMMRC 0320

Click here for class schedule information.

Add to Portfolio.

Close Window