Digital Methods & AI Literacy for Media and Communication Studies

Course goals

At the end of the course students are able to:

• articulate the basic premises of relevant computational methods and AI applications in the humanities (e.g. Digital Methods, Cultural Analytics), their paradigms, and forms;
• critically reflect on the impact of AI technologies and digital tools on knowledge production;
• critically reflect on data ethics in research practice following a structured format and succinctly report on these;
• collaborate in small teams on a joint data-driven project;
• carry out a small scale data-driven study in a group -- including data collection, preparation, analysis, and interpretation;
• orally present and discuss AI literacy and digital methods literature and research.

Content

How do you create knowledge from data? How can you turn a spreadsheet full of numbers and words into something intelligible? What avenues for humanities research can be explored by scholars who want to answer these questions? What are (ethical) pitfalls we need to avoid and drawbacks we need to account for in such research?

In this course, students are introduced to the most relevant digital methods in the humanities and their paradigms. Students gain literacy and practice with generative AI (LLMs), digital methods tools, and Python programming (no prior experience is required). Importantly, students learn how to manage themselves ethically in doing digital research and how interpretive decisions and digital tools impact knowledge production.

Additional information

Please note: the time slot shown here is not yet final and may still be modified until the 3rd Wednesday in September. 

This course is the third course in the CIW specialisation track 'Media, Data en Maatschappij'.
It is also part of the Media and Culture specialisation track 'AI Cultures and Global Digital Society'.

This course has priority rules and a waiting list. Your enrolment is guaranteed if you are:

• a student in the BA CIW, enrolled in the specialisation Media, Data en Maatschappij.
• a student in the BA Media and Culture, enrolled in the specialisation AI Cultures & Global Digital Society.
• a student TCS enrolled in the hoofdrichting Nieuwe Media en Digitale Cultuur.
• an exchange student and meet the course’s entry requirements.

For any remaining slots in the course, lots are drawn among the students on the waiting list. 


This course is equivalent to the course Digital Methods (CI3V21103). If you've already completed Digital Methods you can't take Digital Methods & AI Literacy due to too much overlap in content.

LAS and TCS students who follow this course as part of the core curriculum of their major, need to complete a compulsory preparation course/assignment. See for more information: https://tcs.sites.uu.nl/