28629

SoSe 22: Spaces of Digital Media

Daniela Stoltenberg

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Seminar 28629 – Spaces of Digital Media

Daniela Stoltenberg, M.A.
Summer term 2022, Monday, 16:00-18:00
Course description: In the early days of the mass use of digital technologies, cyber-optimists proclaimed an ‘end of geography’ or a ‘death of distance.’ According to these diagnoses, space and geography would lose relevance, as people could easily connect across large distances and national boundaries. Yet, more than 20 years later, space and geography remain deeply ingrained in digital communication: New digital journalism formats convey ideas about places, activists form translocal networks of solidarity around contested spaces, neighbors use Facebook groups or dedicated neighborhood platforms to communicate about local events, and location-based apps augment one’s immediate surroundings with digital information. In this seminar, we will heed calls for a “spatial turn” in communication studies by focusing on how digital media shape – and are shaped by – spaces and places. Based on interdisciplinary literature that also builds on the sociology of space, we will use empirical research and current examples to discuss how actors, networks, and contents in digital media relate to space and geography. We will focus on different scopes, ranging from local to global, and different actor groups, including journalists, activists, and regular social media users. Schließen