Admission Requirements
None.
Description
Communication is an essential and basic characteristic of the human species. Developments in information and communication technologies, from print to digital media, have influenced human communication through the ages.
Because new media enable and extend our abilities to communicate and change the communication practices we engage in, they have a thoroughgoing influence on society. ‘New´ in the new media revolution we presently witness refers to the various manners in which the digital devices disrupt the way social knowledge is shared. Thereby digital media influence the social arrangements we engage in and the organizations in which we participate. Some even claim that digital media have created the network society.
Digitisation changes existing patterns of storage and distribution of and access to information. Existing categorisations of media blur, new content genres come available on-line and the media industries are restructured by the process. . Moreover, the audience takes a new role in the age of interactive media, even as a producer of content.
Digitisation therefore is changing the role of traditional media, including books. The position of authors, publishers, booksellers as well as that of readers is affected. Furthermore, on-line media provide new chances to access historical collections, including those containing books and manuscript.
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the understanding of the significance of new media for society and culture. This course is provided in collaboration with the MA Program Journalism and New Media.
Course Objectives
Students learn to understand the broad social and cultural implications of the introduction and advance of digital technology in information and communication. They will learn how to assess the implications of these trends for the future of different modes of communication, specifically the media.
Timetable
The timetable will be available from July 1 onwards on the Department website.
Mode of Instruction
Essays and assignments.
Assessment
Essays and assignments.
Blackboard
This course is supported by Blackboard.
Reading list
Asa Briggs and Peter Burke, A Social History of the Media, from Gutenberg to the Internet (London: Polity Press [2005 or a later edition])
Selected number of articles provided through Blackboard or print.
Registration
Students can register through uSis.
Contact information
Department of Book and Digital Media Studies, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, building 1168, room 102c, tel. 071 527 2144, email: english@let.leidenuniv.nl; p.g.hoftijzer@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
The course consists of seven lectures and seven workshops, two hours each. Four of the lectures are shared with students of the MA Program Journalism and New Media. These deal with the following general topics (1) Public sphere, private media and network society, (2) Convergence and media industries, (3) Cross media production, (4) Interactivity, user generated content and web 2.0. The lectures are combined with seven workshops dealing with the lecture topics, departing from additional reading material on the topic of the week. Workshops are Book and Digital Media students only.