JOUR1917: The Medium is the Message: Communication, Technology and Society

This class will examine the various theories of communication mediation and the relationship between technological change and various dimensions of social life (economic, historical, political, pedagogical, cultural, and so forth). For instance, what if cellular telephones with video and immediate transmission capabilities had existed in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, or in Arawak villages in the Caribbean in the 1490s? Media enable witnessing and that is a fundamental role of journalists. Media extend our optic and audial nervous systems. We will examine how the invention and operationalization of various technologies have altered our views of reality.

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