Studying Digital Media

The Digital Mediamajor is embedded in the interdisciplinary College study model with Leuphana Semester, Minor and Complementary Studies. You start your Bachelor studies with the Leuphana Semester. The first semester at Leuphana College gives you the opportunity to deal fundamentally with science. The Minor deepens or supplements your Major with another subject area. In Complementary Studies you have the freedom to pursue your thirst for knowledge individually by immersing yourself in a different field of knowledge each semester.

Leuphana Semester

• Responsibility and Sustainability
• Humanities
• Methods I
• Methods II: Disciplinary Methods – Digital Media
• Introduction to the discipline: Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media

2 semester

• History and Epistemology of Digital Media
• Media Cultures
• Practical Experience in Digital Media I
• Technological Basics I
• 1 minor module
• 1 Complementary Studies module

3 semester

• History and Epistemology of Digital Media
• Media Cultures
• Practical Experience in Digital Media II
• Technological Basics II
• 1 minor module
• 1 Complementary Studies module

4 semester

• Net Criticism
• Agents and Interfaces
• Practical Experience in Digital Media III
• 2 minor modules
• 1 Complementary Studies module

5 semester

• Research Colloquium
• Recent Developments in Media Theory
• Economics of Digital Media
• 2 minor modules
• 1 Complementary Studies module

6 semester

• Research Colloquium
• Bachelor dissertation
• 2 Complementary Studies modules

• You will find detailed information on the study contents of the major modules in the Subject-Specific Schedule to Digital Media major.

The Digital Media major can stu­di­ed in com­bi­na­ti­on with one of the fol­lo­wing minor:

• Business Administration (GER)
• Business Psychology (GER)
• Digital Business (GER)
• Economics (GER / ENG)
• Educational Sciences (GER)
• Engineering (Fundamentals) (GER)
• Law (Corporate and Business Law) (GER)
• Philosophy (GER / ENG)
• Political Science (GER / ENG)
• Popular Music Studies (ENG)
• Psychology and Society (ENG)
• Social Media and Information Systems (GER)
• Spatial Sciences (GER / ENG)
• Sustainability Science (GER / ENG)

Language of instruction

ENG Englisch-language minor has to be studied in English
GER German-language minor has to be studied in German
GER / ENG German-language minor can either be studied in German or in English

The general introduction into scientific thinking and research in the Leuphana Semester includes two courses, which relate directly to the Major Digital Media: One course gives you an overview of Digital Media Studies as an academic subject, the second course will familiarise you with the most important Concepts and Methods of Digital Media Studies.

From the second semester onwards, the major is structured in four strands, each of which has several modules. The first strand consists of a thorough engagement with the history and analysis of digital media in general. In the second strand you analyse particular elements of media cultures, such as digital video, digital audio or net culture. In the third strand you learn hands-on skills and develop your own practical projects. All this is completed by the fourth strand, which looks at digital media from a more technical angle. These four strands run in parallel over 4-5 semesters.

The four strands

The first strand starts with the module History and Epistemology of Media: In its two seminars you encounter digital media in historical moments, such as early computing in the 1930-40s, cybernetics in the 1940-50s, early Internet in the 1960-70s, relational databases in the 1970-80s, the World Wide Web in the early 1990s or the emergence of social media and location-based services in recent years. You also learn various approaches, how to analyse and critique such processes and technologies from different angles, and reflect on how digital technologies have changed the ways how we think and act. This strand is completed by the module Economy of Digital Media: Here you take a seminar in which you have a look at the political economy and global geography of digital media, be it at the work place, in financial processes, in search and data mining, or in start-up cultures, covering structures and practices across the value chain and across the globe.

The second strand starts with the module Media Cultures. Its two seminars introduce you to the analysis of media cultures, such as sound cultures, digital image and moving images, transmedia storytelling, games and gamification (the latter is the use of game-like incentive structures outside of games), or computer simulation. You learn how to understand such topics from various angles: Media cultures are, for example, part of a genealogy of apparatuses (= ways of exercising direct and indirect power) or of a landscape of affects (= forms of emotional entanglement and attunement). This strand is completed with a module on Net Criticism consisting of one seminar. Here you engage in debates, which are now more virulent than ever, and often started decades ago. Topics include Internet surveillance and anonymity, participation, control and free labour in social media and locative media, Internet governance and governementality, new forms of collectivities and subjectivities, tactical media and liquid democracy, open data and citizen science, copyright and commons, and the tension of grassroots movements versus media monopolies.

The third strand is all about hands-on skills and, even more importantly, your own practice! In the module Practical Experience in Digital Media I a lecture series, a seminar and many practical exercises introduce you to basics in areas such as audio, video, web and app design, or setting up a database, teaching you how to understand and use the computer as a medium. The module Practical Experience in Digital Media II consists of an intensive, practical seminar, which extends the exercises into your own full media production, from concept to execution and launch. This includes refining your technical skills, but also introduces soft skills such as project management. In the module Practical Experience in Digital Media III you plan and execute a complex, collaborative project. You refine and extend your soft skills into areas such as campaigning and community management, and you expand your technical skills in areas such as web analytics, and using APIs and data scraping techniques to tie in your projects with other databases. You also learn how to push the limits of existing media by using experimental methods and approaches.

The fourth strand looks at digital media from a technical perspective. The module Technological Basics I – Programming and Design includes a series of lectures and exercises, which teach you how to understand programming as a central cultural technique, and introduce you to languages such as C++, Java, PHP or Python (don’t be scared, if you have no prior technological knowledge – you learn it here!). In a seminar combined with further practical exercises, which jointly make up the module Technological Basics II – Systems and Networks, you encounter the technical foundations of the Internet, digital information processing, and the World Wide Web. Further topics are social network analysis, graph theory and visualisation of networks. The module Agents and Interfaces completes the fourth strand: In its seminar you analyse front- and backend as well as hardware of technical artefacts, and get an introduction into approaches stemming from Science and Technology Studies, Media Theory and Software Studies.

Bachelor thesis

The Bachelor thesis rounds out the digital media program of study. Here, students can show that they can apply the foundations and methodologies, which they have learned in the previous semesters, to a topic of their own. Students are given nine weeks to carry out an academic assessment of a contemporary question.

With the conclusion of the program you will have earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.).

One of the great opportunities that comes with studying Digital Media at Leuphana University of Lüneburg is the chance to get two single degrees, one from Leuphana and one from the City University of Hong Kong. At CityU, you can study at the School of Creative Media for two years in order to earn a second degree. Exchange programme

• City University of Hong Kong
• School of Creative Media
• Creative Media B.A.
• New Media B.A.S.

• final degree: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
• admission restriction: yes
• standard course length: 6 semester
• deadline for applications: 15 July of each year
• beginning of the course: October of each year (winter semester)
• number of student places: 36
• teaching and examination language: English (no German required)
• semester abroad: possible

College Open Day

The next Online Open Day at Leuphana College is 31 May 2024. Find out more

Information material

Learn more about the interdisciplinary college study model. Order information material

Student counselling service

Clarify your questions in a personal conversation during the Open Advisory Service. You can take advantage of digital counselling at short notice without registering. The College study advisors will be happy to help you:

• Wednesdays from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. (in person on campus)
• Thursdays from 4-6 p.m. (digitally via Zoom)

Find out more

The International Office will be pleased to assist you in planning and organising your studies abroad at Leuphana College. Study abroad at Leuphana