Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

This module will replace the existing Globalization, Convergence, Digitization. Many of the topics covered in that course will also be incorporated into this course, but elements will be covered in more depth, whilst the globalization components - even though forming a backdrop in terms of digital developments - will not be studied in detail. Nevertheless, the topic of globalization in relation to media and communications will be provided for in two new lectures to be fitted into the first year module Mediated Communication from next year.
The course will focus on the huge impact that digital technologies have had upon multiple areas of culture, looking in detail at the changing cultural landscape in the digital age. It will enable students to explore the underlying basis of the 'digital' and the associated theoretical implications: in particular, the chief differences between digital and analogue will be underlined, and their respective enabling and constraining features will be considered. Technology will, however, be placed firmly within a web of interlocking influences so that it is demonstrated that it not only shapes the cultural sphere, but is also shaped by (and cannot be extracted from) broader social forces. We will look in particular at a number of discrete instances of media forms and issues, and we will also begin to look at how forms that were once considered separate are now beginning to blur (considering the key notion of convergence). We will also stress the importance of continuities by placing these developments within historical frameworks, so that the 'newness' of new/digital media is not overstated.

• To engage students in understanding of the nature of digital technologies and how these feed into cultural life in a variety of ways
• To place these technological shifts firmly within historical and social contexts, in order to assess the main forces driving such technological shifts
• To explore the nature of changes occurring as a result of convergence between media, at many levels including: ownership, cross-fertilisation; textual interdependence; marketing and publicity; and modes of distribution.
• To consider the role increasingly being played by digital modes of production, storage and transmission in these processes, including considering how far/in what ways these new technologies may be helpfully understood by reference to previous 'new' technologies.

Possible topics include:

• Key concepts in digital culture
• Hacking, piracy and sharing
• Digital art: from the gallery to the monitor
• Production and consumption 1: Film, music
• Production and consumption 2: Television, journalism
• Video Games
• Mobile media
• New media and cultural politics
• Collecting and archiving
• Are all media converging?