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WiSe 20/21: Critical Approaches to Digital Media Economies

Miglè Bareikytè / Ingo Dachwitz

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It is widely assumed, that digital media contribute to shaping our world. They offer us options for participation, sharing, content creation and ubiquitous communication that seem to result in cultural imperatives. Despite the blurry boundaries of what digital media actually are, industries of digital media take the form of concrete organizational structures with their labor practices, business models and regulatory aspects. In fact, many recent developments in digital media can be ascribed to profit interests - for mobile phones see Apple and its iPhone; for information organization see Google's algorithms; for commerce and logistics see Amazon; for connectivity see Facebook and its various social media services. At the same time unpaid contributions to knowledge communities and free software, the usage of open licenses or alternative ownership models provide us with different approaches. In addition to that, informal practices of streaming and file sharing create shadow digital media economies through their distribution networks. In the seminar we aim to explore and critically evaluate the complex landscape of digital media economies through the analysis of exemplary conflicts over labor, platforms, infrastructures, data, algorithms and property regimes. Therefore we will read texts from media theory, social theory, science and technology studies, explore journalistic and artistic examples in order to critically engage with different discourses, processes and actors that form economies of digital media. close

15 Class schedule

Regular appointments

Thu, 16:00 - 18:00 15 Class schedule

Thu, 2020-11-05 16:00 - 18:00

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