Admission requirements
This course is a core module for students on the MA Book and Digital Media Studies (or exchange students admitted to this programme). Students from other programmes are welcome to approach the course coordinator for admission, but this will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Description
Communication is an essential for us humans: developments in communication technologies, from writing, via print, to digital media, have influenced the inscription and transmission of human culture through the ages. Yet what drives medial change? In this course, we will study textual technologies and their properties and affordances, that invite specific use on the one hand; and social and cultural developments that instigate changes in communication, on the other – the sociotechnical iterations that transform textuality.
The current rise of digital tekst, in particular, disrupts the traditional production, distribution and consumption of information. Among other effects, existing categorisations of media blur, new content genres and text types come available online and the media industries are restructured in the process. Yet there are also continuities: we still admire authorship and originality, albeit in digital expressions, and literacy is still of absolute necessity to participate in society and culture.
This course provides a comprehensive conceptual introduction to medial change in general, and to the significance of the digital medium for present-day textual culture in particular. We will discuss concepts, models and theories from media studies – for example convergence, platform theory, and changing definitions of reading and literacy – and use them to interrogate textual practices, particular those prevalent in our digitizing Western society.
Course objectives
Students:
gain insight in the role of media as ‘transformative technologies’ in social and cultural history;
familiarise themselves with key concepts, definitions and models in the study of textual transmission and communication;
are introduced to scholarly debates on the nature of socio-technical change and its practical implications;
learn to understand the broad social and cultural implications of the introduction and advance of new mediums and the recurring patterns that characterise medial change as a sociotechnical process;
build skills to express themselves both in oral form during in-class discussions, in short written comments on Brightspace, and in long-form sustained argument through the course essay.
Timetable
The timetables are available through MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Assessment method
Assessment
Take home examination/assignment
For each class, a thematic discussion is initiated on Brightspace by the lecturer. Each student should submit three brief responses to such discussions, one of which should be written in the first half of the semester. Each post counts towards 10% of the course grade.Essay
The course is examined further with a final course essay, for which students develop a response to one of two thematic research questions, provided by the lecturer. The essay counts towards 70% of the course grade.
Weighing
The final mark for the course is established by (i) determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher. Moreover, (ii) the essay grade should be 6.0 or higher.
Resit
The resit consists of the same components as the first attempt.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
- Adriaan van der Weel, Changing Our Textual Minds: Towards a Digital Order of Knowledge (Manchester UP, 2011). It is recommended students buy this book beforehand.
Links to other reading materials, all available through the University Library if not openly on the web, will be provided in the online syllabus.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration Exchange
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office. À la carte education and Contract teaching not applicable.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Arsenaal.
Remarks
Attendance is compulsory and absence on three occasions or more may entail your removal from the course or require the submission of additional assignments to make up credit. Please contact the course coordinator if there are compelling reasons for absence (e.g. sickness, family emergency).