Faculty
Benedikte Brincker

Course Coordinator
Benedikte Brincker

Course content: The aim of this course is to provide insights into the social, organisational and economic dynamics that underpin innovations within the new media and information and communications technologies (ICTs) that are typical of information and communication intensive societies in the twenty first century. The course takes its point of departure in the premise that both old and new media and ICTs are developed and used within a complex innovation system with local and global dimensions. The course is divided into two parts. The first part will concentrate on the relationship between media and ICTs - new as well as old – and society, exploring the ways in which key theorists and researchers have addressed the central questions of influence of the media and ICTs and the assumptions that have underlain their critique. The second part focuses on the supposed transformations of society and culture that have been labelled postmodern. Through a critical engagement with some of the key theorists, it examines innovations within new media and ICTs and the implications for transformations in society. In so doing, it debates how innovations within new media and ICTs are creating new opportunities for individual and collective interaction. Each lecture will include an empirical research-based examination of a case which illuminates the theme of the lecture.

The course aims to enhance students’ ability to work on a case-basis, enabling them to identify the possibility to and perform case-analysis.

The objectives of the course are:
1) To familiarise students with key contemporary debates about media, ICTs and societal change.

2) To enable students to understand innovations within media and ICTs and the implications for transformations in society.

3) To provide students with a critical grasp of how innovations within media and ICTs are creating new opportunities for individual and collective interaction.

Oral examination on the basis of synopsis

Castells, Manuel: Communication Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009

Mansell, Robin: Information Society, London: Routledge, 2009

Silverstone, Roger (ed.): Media, technology and everyday life in Europe: from information to communication. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005

Weber, Steven: The Success of Open source, Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 2004

Mansell, Robin (ed.): Inside the Communication Revolution: Evolving Patterns of Social and Technical Interaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002