Communication Technologies: From Social Media to AI

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 4
• Convenor: Dr Joel McKim
• Tutors: Dr Robert Topinka, Dr Seda Ilter
• Assessment: a 1500-word critical essay (30%) and practice-based collaborative group media project and 1000-word individual critical reflection (70%)

In this module we examine the history and development of digital media technologies and consider their impact on contemporary forms of representation, politics and problem-solving.

• How has the accessibility of digital technologies changed the way we create and communicate?
• What is the significance of the digital data and code that lies behind our contemporary images and interfaces?
• Have new forms of digital media widened or limited participation in global public life?

We will examine the social, political and economic conditions shaping and being shaped by a wide range of emergent technologies, such as mobile devices, apps, social media platforms, and generative AI. We will examine how digital technologies have changed and continue to change creative culture and industries, from art and design to cinema to theatre and performance.

You will learn to identify and communicate problems associated with our relationship to digital and media communication technologies. And you will work collaboratively to think through and propose innovative solutions to some of these challenges.

Indicative syllabus

• Communicating with digital data
• Video game culture and industries
• Digital media and globalisation
• Viral culture, memes and misinformation
• Digital cinema and computer animation
• Immersive technologies (VR, AR and the metaverse)
• Social media and influencer economies
• The politics and ethics of AI
• The aesthetics of the digital image
• Representation of technology in performance (presence vs absence)
• Writing for a mediatised audience
• Social media activism and democracy

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate knowledge of digital communication technologies and the role they play within cotemporary global challenges
• demonstrate critical-thinking skills which you will apply towards in-depth analyses of our current communication environment and work towards the development of global problem-solving strategies.