Digital Culture

The course deals with an intersection of technological development and cultural mutations, characteristic for 21st century. 21st century witnesses an accelerated development of mostly digital media technologies, meaning that on the level of everyday culture communication and social connections, based on speech and writing, are being displaced by those based on computers and smartphones. What occurs is not only a transplantation of old media content into new technological hardware - it ist the very mode of sociality that changes in process, as witnessed in the case of social media.
Apart form social media, there is a development of many other new media forms and uses, based on new media technologies. Examples are gaming, digital modes of social control and political communication, as well as algorithmic advertising. Semester thus starts with a general theory of transition from “old” towards the new, digital media media and with an overview of technological, social and cultural changes that the new media bring.
Second half of the semester is dedicated to case studies of the use and cultural effects of the new media, i.e. how do social media change our social relations; how does gaming abolish the barrier between media production and reception; how does algorithmic advertising transition form commercials as convincing to commercials as seduction; how do videos, commercials and tv show intros transform the visual aesthetics of the new media; and why is science fiction key new media genre.
These case studies are followed by a reflection on political implications of the new media technologies, especially regarding the problems with digital social control and the corrosion of democratic procedures of political choice and decision making.