Area of Concentration: Media

Learning Objectives

Students analyse the technological, economic and social conditions of media and understand their effects on society, politics and culture.

Students understand the functional differences between various media and are able to use them in a well-qualified way, with special reference to digital media.

Media open a window onto our world. Both the traditional media (including printed books, the press, theatre, radio and film) and the new media (including blogs, social media and video platforms) construe realities, thus shaping our perceptions of the world and our communication. The digitisation of recent decades illustrates the growing interconnectedness of technical innovation and cultural practices. Smartphones, for instance, alongside the construction of global social media, have led to great changes in self-fashioning and also in group formation processes. More generally, the digital revolution has triggered a series of changes, including the decline of print media, changes in the public sphere and the boundaries of the private sphere, and new forms of censorship, surveillance or e-commerce. These elements, as well as the exploration of written culture as the basis of knowledge, education and cultural discourses, are important parts of the courses on offer in media competence.

The Media area of concentration focuses on the theoretical and practical understanding of the interfaces and interactions of technology, economics, culture and society, as well as on the media-specific contingencies of information transmission, the construction of reality and the production of meaning. This means that you will be able to understand the economic, technological and social conditions of formation, as well as the modes of action, of various media products (newspapers, books, e-books, blogs, films and so on) and of different genres (novels, TV series, wikis and so on). You will also gain the skills necessary to be able to interpret and evaluate these products. We shall, moreover, explore with you how to use the media professionally, confidently, and in a cost-oriented way in practical seminars. Another aim is to prepare you for the professional requirements of storytelling (in areas such as branding and marketing).

Bachelor students in the Media area of concentration focus on introductory media theory and media history, and in-depth courses on specific formats and genres (storytelling, advertisements, film, social media, selfies and so on). At the Master level, this area of concentration focuses on complex interdisciplinary issues related to the media and themes such as media economics, the transculturality and globalisation of the media, representations of gender, the formation of the public sphere, the social consequences of algorithms and big data.