Course Schedule

Start > Leuphana Bachelor (B.A./B.Eng./B.Sc./LL.B.) -> Leuphana Semester -> Wissenschaft nutzt Methoden. Medien und Methoden

Lehrveranstaltungen

Basic methods and concepts in Digital Media Studies – a survival guide for beginners (Seminar)

Dozent/in:

Termin:
 wöchentlich | Donnerstag | 10:15 - 13:45 | 05.12.2013 - 30.01.2014 | extern | Raum 233; Hamburg Media School

Inhalt: In this course we will look at concepts and methods of Digital Media Studies under four premises: (1) Concepts and Methods are dangerous beasts! Much too often they prevent open curiosity, divide researchers into different camps, and seal these camps off against the encounter with other forms of knowledge in and outside the university. (2) Concepts and methods are essential for science! Each researcher has particular areas, where she or he explicitly thinks about what she or he does, and, even more importantly, answers questions of other researchers, why he or she has made the decision in this or that way. Without concepts and methods, there is no science. (3) Concepts and methods are important for students! When you learn your craft, you need to understand basic terms and basic methods, often in a very hands-on, how-to-do kind of way. You need to try them out as well as understand some of their histories, and how they changed over time, not the least to prevent falling in traps that can be avoided easily. (4) Concepts and methods are not holy grails, but means to ends! They are here to be criticized, modified, thrown away, pulled out of the garbage can again, and used in all sorts of appropriate and inappropriate manners – as long as you know what you are doing and give good reasons for this. All this is even more virulent now, as concepts and methods are undergoing a particularly rapid change under the current conditions of the digital shift: As the basic technological conditions of our thinking in science, but also of our culture, in general, are drastically changing, modification of old concepts and methods, and development of new ones are especially important tasks. This course will lay the foundation of such an understanding, and, while doing so, will introduce you to some of the most fundamental and widely used concepts and methods in Digital Media Studies.