Online Course Highlights

New York University via Edx
Learn for FREE, Up-gradable
Length: 14 Weeks
Effort: 8–10 hours per week
Skill Level: Mixed
Language: English

About this course

Students in this course will build critical, applicable knowledge and understanding of the pervasive impact of media and technology on culture. You will learn influential concepts of media and technology, and be able to apply these ideas to contemporary trends, issues, and your own practice of art and design. Whether you are a graphic designer, UX/UI designer, web designer, or accessibility designer, this course will help you connect your work immediately to a deep, evolving framework of ideas and questions that enrich our understanding of how people consume, create, and use media, how human and non-human objects are related, how games make us think about platforms and software, and how we currently view traditional media such as sound, pictures and video.

What you’ll learn

Contemporary issues and trends in how media is viewed and analyzed

Ways in which theoreticians and practitioners approach media and technology
A vocabulary that facilitates discussion of media concepts, theories, and projects from a critical perspective
Critical applications of media theory and context to past, present, and future work
Media-theoretical frameworks to objects, texts, and technologies

Syllabus

Week 1: Seminal Theory

The origins of media theory, and how these thinkers have influenced contemporary thought
A brief look at ‘new’ modes of thought that expand on these earlier ones

Week 2: Cybernetics

The thinking behind cybernetics, and the technological and social implications of this method of thinking

Week 3: Computation

The origins of computational thinking, how it relates to cybernetic systems, and what implications it has for media production and consumption

Week 4: Interaction/Interface

How interaction and interfaces has led to new understanding of how people consume, create, and use media

Week 5: Networks

How interaction and interfaces has led to new understanding of how people consume, create, and use media

Week 6: Control

The ways in which computational systems can be used as agents of control, implied and explicit

Week 7: Affect Theory

How theorists understand the self embodied in the machine

Week 8: Actor – Network Theory

How ANT is not so much a theory as it is a method for understanding the world around us and the relationship between human and non-human objects

Week 9: Cyborg Life

The boundaries of our bodies in relation to the world of technology we have designed around us, what is permeable, what is fixed?

Week 10: Media Archaeology

How it’s possible to think about aspects of media through physical artifacts like infrastructure, software, and machines themselves

Week 11: Queer & Feminist Theory

How thinking about media has been transformed by, and in turn changed, queer and feminist theory

Week 12: Games

How games provide a rich area for different kinds of media study such as platforms studies, software studies, and media archeology

Week 13: Sound & Image

How theory has transformed our understanding of ‘traditional’ forms of media like video, sound, and still images

Week 14: Media Now

Emerging theories surrounding media studies like Object Oriented Ontology and Post-digitalism

More Related Courses:

Data Visualization for All (Course not available)

Trinity College via edX
6 Weeks of effort required
Skill Level: Introductory
★★★★★

Data Visualization and Communication with Tableau

Duke University via Coursera
25 hours of effort required
131,528 students enrolled!
★★★★★ (2,269 Ratings)
This Course is Part of Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business Specialization

Fundamentals of Visualization with Tableau

University of California Davis via Coursera
72 hours of effort required
42,683 students enrolled!
★★★★★ (7,177 Ratings)
This Course is Part of Data Visualization with Tableau Specialization

Your Feedback:

There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to write one.

0.0

0.0 out of 5 stars (based on 0 reviews)

Excellent0%

Very good0%

Average0%

Poor0%

Terrible0%

Theories of Media and Technology