UCINTMES317.5 ECTSEnglishBachelor
Digital Citizens, Media and Culture
Faculteit—
NiveauBachelor
Studiejaar2026-2027
Beschrijving
Course goals
After completing this course students are able to:
1. Demonstrate sophisticated knowledge on key topics pertaining to digital citizenship, digital media and digital culture in the 21st century.
2. Demonstrate a broad, historically and culturally situated understanding of how digitalization and algorithmification has transformed
- approaches to citizenship, top-down (e.g. governance) and bottom-up (e.g. public engagement).
- media and culture (e.g. consider media production or circulation or how technology and materiality of cultural objects shape our use and our social imaginaries etc.).
3. Make connections between various academic fields (e.g. media studies, political theory, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, visual culture studies, museum studies etc.) and non-academic knowledge (e.g. journalism, arts and culture, indigenous, community-based).
4. Conduct an independent and original piece of journalistic research on a topic of their choice.
5. Conduct an independent and original piece of academic research on a topic, theoretical and methodological approach of their choice.
Relationship between assessment and learning goals:
1.
Content
Course Content
Digital technologies have become ubiquitous, pervading our lives even when we are unaware of them.
As citizens this affects us as these technologies generate information about us, translating all aspects of our lives into digital data. By doing so, our identities and actions become track-able, catagoris-able, transmitt‐able and stor‐able. At the same time, however, these technologies also allow citizens to access a transnational public sphere, either to voice their perspectives, make visible, shape public opinion, or find a community.
Similarly, digitalisation has radically transformed media and culture over the past decades. Take for example how we produce and consume news media; how generative AI is currently reshaping the businesses, education, and many other sectors; or how artists, designers and media makers are re-imagining the world around us using digital technologies.
In this interdomain course we will explore these developments from various fields of inquiry such as media and cultural studies, journalism, the arts, anthropology, sociology, political theory or philosophy. We will also invite guest speakers, academic and non-academic, from various fields to help us make sense of these swiftly changing realities and to identify tactics with which citizen journalists, artists, designers and activists seek to overcome determinist notions of a passive data subject.
Please note that this course – on offer since spring 2018 – will be somewhat reconfigured for spring 2025 as it will now include more expansive digital media and digital culture components. Students from all fields and tracks meeting the entrance requirements are invited to enrol and further develop their own interests in the course (e.g. in the journalistic and term paper assignment).
Format
Most classes will be held seminar-style, at times accompanied by lectures with ample opportunity for discussion. We will also invite several guest speakers, academic and non-academic (e.g. a non-profit organisation, journalism, arts and culture), from various fields.
In preparation for each class, students will read the assigned texts or watch a film. In some weeks, they will also be prompted to do an exercise (e.g. prepare a discussion, conduct a data walk or visit an exhibition).
Several classes will be student-led. This means in cooperation with the teacher, students will identify a thematically relevant angle. In small groups, they will thoroughly prepare for and lead the class, moving beyond a classical presentation-style approach towards co-creating a more dialogic teaching-and-learning environment.
Digital technologies have become ubiquitous, pervading our lives even when we are unaware of them.
As citizens this affects us as these technologies generate information about us, translating all aspects of our lives into digital data. By doing so, our identities and actions become track-able, catagoris-able, transmitt‐able and stor‐able. At the same time, however, these technologies also allow citizens to access a transnational public sphere, either to voice their perspectives, make visible, shape public opinion, or find a community.
Similarly, digitalisation has radically transformed media and culture over the past decades. Take for example how we produce and consume news media; how generative AI is currently reshaping the businesses, education, and many other sectors; or how artists, designers and media makers are re-imagining the world around us using digital technologies.
In this interdomain course we will explore these developments from various fields of inquiry such as media and cultural studies, journalism, the arts, anthropology, sociology, political theory or philosophy. We will also invite guest speakers, academic and non-academic, from various fields to help us make sense of these swiftly changing realities and to identify tactics with which citizen journalists, artists, designers and activists seek to overcome determinist notions of a passive data subject.
Please note that this course – on offer since spring 2018 – will be somewhat reconfigured for spring 2025 as it will now include more expansive digital media and digital culture components. Students from all fields and tracks meeting the entrance requirements are invited to enrol and further develop their own interests in the course (e.g. in the journalistic and term paper assignment).
Format
Most classes will be held seminar-style, at times accompanied by lectures with ample opportunity for discussion. We will also invite several guest speakers, academic and non-academic (e.g. a non-profit organisation, journalism, arts and culture), from various fields.
In preparation for each class, students will read the assigned texts or watch a film. In some weeks, they will also be prompted to do an exercise (e.g. prepare a discussion, conduct a data walk or visit an exhibition).
Several classes will be student-led. This means in cooperation with the teacher, students will identify a thematically relevant angle. In small groups, they will thoroughly prepare for and lead the class, moving beyond a classical presentation-style approach towards co-creating a more dialogic teaching-and-learning environment.
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