TLÜ ÕIS

Digital Culture

Course code

BFR7004.FK

old course code

Course title in Estonian

Digikultuur

Course title in English

Digital Culture

ECTS credits

6.0

Assessment form

Examination

lecturer of 2023/2024 Spring semester

Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.

lecturer of 2024/2025 Autumn semester

Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.

Course aims

This course aims to introduce students to various theoretical, especially social sciences and humanities (media and communication research, economy, sociology, cultural studies, etc.) based approaches to making sense of digital culture. Active participation in the course should leave the students with an adequate overview of current definitions and relevant concepts of, some excellent recent studies about, relevant scholarly debates regarding and approaches to studying and analyzing digital culture.

Brief description of the course

This is a theoretically oriented course. Topics covered include but are not limited to internet history, digital communities, social media and digital platforms, datafication, creator culture, digital music industries, audio-visual streaming services, etc. The course consists of lectures, three seminars based on assigned readings, and written homework.

The course is coordinated and taught by Madis Järvekülg (emdies@tlu.ee) and the following guest instructors: Indrek Ibrus (ibrus@tlu.ee), Maximilian Schich (mxs@tlu.ee) Mikhail Fiadotau (fiadotau@tlu.ee,) Katrin Tiidenberg (katrin.tiidenberg@gmail.com), Sten Kauber (stenkbr@tlu.ee), Ermo Säks (ermo@tlu.ee).

The course syllabus including a detailed description and schedule of the course will be made available on Moodle by the 1st of September at: https://moodle.edu.ee/course/view.php?id=44398

Learning outcomes in the course

Upon completing the course the student:
- is able to understand and discuss the following topics in an educated manner, well-situated in relevant literature: What can be understood as digital culture? How has it evolved over time? What are the central concepts utilized to discuss it in academic debates in various disciplines? How to research digital culture? What are the implications of digital culture to our everyday socio-economic and cultural life? How has digitization influenced creative industries?;
- has been introduced to a carefully selected set of analytical tools needed to make sense of diverse digital cultural phenomena. The student will be able to apply these tools to analyze how networked communication technologies impact cultural products, practices, everyday life, interactions and identities, and develop a voice for addressing issues and controversies of digital culture in continuous short written assignments;
- has improved their academic writing, presentation, and reasoning skills.

Teacher

Madis Järvekülg

Study programmes containing that course