Aims

• To introduce students to theories and issues relevant to Digital Cultures, related technologies and media, and their contexts.
• To equip students with the critical and analytical skills to enable them to examine the cultural, economic, political and social contexts, sites and practices of digital technologies.
• To promote and develop scholarly and practical strategies for self-supported learning, including in an interdisciplinary and collaborative context.

This module serves as an introduction to the study of “Digital Cultures”. Digital Cultures is understood to include (but is not limited to) digital and online technologies and platforms, their everyday use by individuals, their use by companies, organisations, government and other groups, the communities, art cultures, media, formed with and through digital and / or online technologies. Throughout there will be a critical focus on questions of power, politics and social relations in relation to digital technologies, media and cultures.

Outline Of Syllabus

This module is aimed at students who are new to the field of digital cultures and/or who have some initial knowledge of related fields. The module will encourage students to critically engage with some of the key terms, concepts, ideas, and approaches in the study of Digital Cultures.

The module (and programme) is committed to emphasising the presence of marginalised voices and endeavours to iteratively reformulate its cannon. Questions of power are central to the critical understanding that will be developed, examining the complex intersection of digital technologies, culture, politics, economies, power and spaces can both reproducing and reinforce forms of exploitation and oppression, and also provide sites and practices of resistance.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Teaching will primarily exist of combined lecture / workshops. Sessions will normally start with a lecture on a key topic. This will be followed by a workshop which will normally involve students undertaking group work towards the assessment.

One day of field work will take place in Newcastle. This will consist of group tasks examining the role of digital technologies in everyday urban spaces. This will be consolidated during the lecture / workshop later that week.

Directed research and reading will increase students’ familiarity with core texts and relevant projects supporting their knowledge of sites, contexts and futures in Digital Cultures. This will include set readings, accompanied by reading guides to familiarise students with academic texts and to develop reflective and critical approaches and suitable note-taking practices.

Assessment preparation and completion includes time taken outside of the classroom working individually and in groups towards the group assessment.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The module is assessed through group work, in the form of a "zine".

Students will be supported to develop group-working and collaboration skills throughout the module, which will be vital for future modules (particularly MCH2091).

Assessment preparation will take place in part during in-class activities, with students expected to work in groups and individually between classroom sessions.

Formative assessment will be ongoing, and classroom based. Formative assessment will include forms of reflection that support the reflective log.