Digital Practices and Critical Media

General characterization

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

. Atton, Chris, ed. The Routledge companion to alternative and community
media. Routledge, 2015.
. Berry, D. M. (2015). Critical theory and the digital. Bloomsbury Publishing
USA.
.Burgess, Jean, and Joshua Green. YouTube: Online video and participatory
culture. John Wiley & Sons, 2018.
. Chun, Wendy. H. Kyun. (2016). Updating to remain the same: Habitual New
Media. MIT press.
. Castells, Manuel. Networks of outrage and hope: Social movements in the
Internet age. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.
. Fuchs, Christian. (2011). Foundations of critical media and information
studies (Vol. 52). Taylor & Francis.
. Gerbaudo, P. (2012). Tweets and the streets: Social media and contemporary
activism. Pluto Press.

. Jenkins, Henry, et al. By any media necessary: The new youth activism. Vol.
3. NYU Press, 2018.
. Hands, J. (2010). @'is for Activism: Dissent, Resistance and Rebellion in a
Digital Culture. Pluto Press.
. Mitchell, W. J. T., & Hansen, M. B. (Eds.). (2010). Critical terms for media
studies. University of Chicago Press.
. Weibel, Peter. (Ed.). (2015). Global activism: Art and conflict in the 21st
century. ZKM, Center for Art and Media.
. Pink, Sarah, et al. Digital ethnography: Principles and practice. Sage, 2015.

Teaching method

The expositive methodology will be accompanied by readings and plenary sessions with
presentations for debate. In addition to the bibliographical, multimedia or audiovisual
references, practical cases will be analyzed in class, to frame a methodology of research
and preparation of practical research. Written work can also be proposed, in the form of an
essay, based on the learning contents.

Evaluation method

Evaluation:
- Class participation in plenary discussion mode (20%).
- Oral presentation, to evaluate argumentation and analysis of a programme issue (20%).
- Written essay that presents an argument or analyzes a practical case, taking into account
the historical/ ethnographic survey and the theoretical-practical framework presented (2500
words) (30%).
OR
- Practical work on the development of an alternative and critical strategy for the use of
of the use of the new media, in the context of an individual or collective action of the
of ecological, cultural, social or political nature. The proposal must involve an action
the digital practices discussed, with a descriptive memory of the process (30%).

Subject matter

Mapping of digital practices in contemporary culture, of individual and collective interactions through the technological possibilities of the new
media.
Identify "digital gestures" that shape social, political, cultural and aesthetic with social actors, in their individual and collective agency and the materialities of digital objects.
Use a critical approach in recognizing and questioning these technological possibilities in their relation to DIY culture, social movements
movements and alternative media in contemporary culture. Analysis of strategies and practices to reflect on digital participation
as a critical choice, individual or collective, as an example of the activist, in a context of digital political praxis and the construction of contemporary networked society.

1. Recognition of the transformations in individual and collective interactions
by the technological possibilities of new media, through multimedia mobile gadgets and
migration to online sharing platforms of collective practices.
2. Understanding an overall "digital gestures", from "clickactivism" to
to "mass self-communication" in early 21st century activism, in recent movements like
OccupyWS(OccupyWallStreet), M12M (Movement12March), #metoo, #BLM
(BlackLivesMatter) or #ER(ExtinctionRebellion).
3. Review of Critical Theory and Social Movements literature applied to the New Media field
and survey of literature of Critical Media and Local Media.
Introduction to qualitative methodologies of netnographic, discursive and visual analysis.
4. Identification of resistance and counter-power strategies of social movements and
alternative media in their digital practices, with practical cases of appropriation and
appropriation and creation, from social networks to contemporary Artivism. Analysis of digital
practices of political, social and cultural and ecological expression.
5. Theoretical and practical case analysis with interdisciplinary resources.
Development of creative practical exercise with qualitative and critical methodology critical to
the context of new media, making use of technological possibilities.

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: