2024/2025
Mediatization of Memory
Type:
Mago-Lego
Delivered by:
Institute of Media
When:
2 module
Open to:
students of one campus
Instructors:
Irina Dushakova
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The course is devoted to the ways of memory processing in the media and is focuses around two dimensions: individual / collective and discursive / material. During the course, students will be offered theoretical resources for understanding current rise of memory studies as well as examples of new media projects in AR, VR, with the involvement of users or as new technologies in institutions traditionally working with memory (museums).The course is built around the concept of deep mediatization (A. Hepp, 2020), postmemory (M. Hirsch, 2012) and the theory of discourse-material knot (Carpentier, 2017). These two approaches will allow students to see the current processes and trends in the public sphere with a critical perspective to technology that lays at the backends of the media and will also equip them with the ability to include material infrastructures together with the textual meanings in their research.At the same time, the course will allow students to reflect on current trends in the media field associated with the growing interest in historical events in the media, with numerous projects and databases that declare their goal of preserving memory as well as new technologies that remind users of past events or intended for various commemorative practices.The course will provide students with theoretical training at the intersection of memory studies and media studies and at the same time increase their familiarity with new media projects.
Learning Objectives
- To introduce classical and modern theoretical concepts in memory studies to students and to provide them with tools for analysis of the inter-influence of memory and media.
- To teach students to use various methods of collecting, processing and interpreting data related to certain aspects of media memory.
- To introduce key digital projects that preserve history in different ways (digital archives, VR/AR galleries, diverse apps based on individual/collective memories, etc.).
Expected Learning Outcomes
- analyzes discourses about the past, about historical memory, about the memories of eyewitnesses
- knows the basic concepts of mediation and mediatization
- analyzes bright cases in contemporary media space
- analyzes inter-influence of media and memory
- has basic knowledge about such categories as collective/social/cultural memory and draws theoretical distinctions between them, can apply the idea of postmemory and other sensitizing concepts to his/her area of professional (theoretical / industrial) interest,
- knows the latest research in the field of memory and media studies in relation to his/her area of professional (theoretical / industrial) interest
- knows the main sources of data about the memories of eyewitnesses in the Russian media space
- knows how to work with relevant databases, platforms and services
Course Contents
- Overview of theoretical approaches in memory studies
- Politics of memory: states and other agents that affect the way we remember.
- “Memorial boom”: grassroots media projects vs state projects aimed at preserving memory
- Representation of a "difficult past"
- Multilayer memory. Material dimension in preserving memory. The discourse-material knot in memory studies.
Assessment Elements
- Attendance of classes & Activity during the course (individual evaluation)
- Analysis of a media project through the lenses of DMK (group assignment)
- Analysis of a grassroots media project
- Collective paper on a historical event in the media
Interim Assessment
- 2024/2025 2nd module0.25 * Analysis of a grassroots media project + 0.25 * Analysis of a media project through the lenses of DMK (group assignment) + 0.2 * Attendance of classes & Activity during the course (individual evaluation) + 0.3 * Collective paper on a historical event in the media
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Kansteiner, W. (2002). Finding Meaning in Memory: A Methodological Critique of Collective Memory Studies. History & Theory, 41(2), 179. https://doi.org/10.1111/0018-2656.00198
- Marianne Hirsch. (2012). The Generation of Postmemory : Writing and Visual Culture After the Holocaust. Columbia University Press.
- On media memory : collective memory in a new media age, , 2011
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Media and memory, Garde-Hansen, J., 2011