Communication And Design Master's Degree

The concept and distinctive characteristics of new media; the historical development of media technologies; technological determinism and social construction of technology; McLuhan and media ecology; Castells and the network society; Manovich and the language of new media; Jenkins and convergence culture; participatory culture and collective intelligence; Web 2.0, user-generated content and producer-consumer relations; platform society and platform capitalism; surveillance society and surveillance capitalism; algorithmic culture and filtering systems; digital labour; digital identity, self-presentation and online communities; the digital public sphere; artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence and synthetic media; and the application of new media theories in communication and design research.

The aim of this course is to provide a graduate-level examination of fundamental and contemporary theoretical approaches developed to explain new media environments. The course enables students to critically evaluate concepts such as digitalisation, the network society, convergence, participatory culture, platformisation, surveillance, data colonialism, algorithmic culture, digital labour, virtual identity, artificial intelligence and new media ecologies.

The course approaches new media not merely as a technological innovation but as a communication environment that restructures economic, social, cultural, political and design-related relations. Students are expected to apply new media theories to contemporary examples, digital platforms, user experiences, interfaces, digital content and algorithmic systems in the fields of communication and design.