IS41810

Cultures of Digital Media offers a critical exploration of the social, cultural, and economic dimensions of digital media in contemporary life. The module examines digital media in context, tracing their historical development and business logics, while interrogating their emergence as key communicative infrastructures shaping everyday practices. Particular attention is given to the platformisation of culture and its implications for politics, journalism, race, gender, selfhood and identity, visual cultures, influencer economies, and digital wellbeing. Alongside case studies, students will engage with pressing questions: what does it mean for culture and our sense of self to be mediated by digital platforms? How do digital media amplify or challenge inequalities of race, gender, and power? What are the personal and collective consequences when these systems are abused, and how do such abuses affect our wellbeing? Equally, students will consider practical responses: what forms of regulation, design, or activism might mitigate harm? How might policy, industry, and community initiatives foster healthier digital cultures? Through these debates, the module encourages students to critically analyse how digital media reflect and transform cultural practices, values, and power relations, while also exploring how they might be reimagined to better serve democratic, equitable, and sustainable futures.