Course Syllabus

The canvas calendar is updated throughout the semester and course changes will be reflected in the calendar with as much notice as possible.

How are digital platforms reshaping the way we live, connect, and belong? In this course, you’ll explore how new media, from Instagram and TikTok to AI and online activism, transform everyday life, politics, and culture across Europe and beyond. Together we’ll trace how social technologies evolved, what they promise, and where they fail, asking how communities are created, controlled, and contested in the digital age.

Through case studies on topics like the Arab Spring, QAnon, and the MeToo Movement, you’ll examine both the positive and negative sides of our connected world: creativity and self-expression alongside disinformation and polarization. Study tours to Aarhus, Odense, London, and Oxford bring the classroom into conversation with journalists, policymakers, and tech innovators.

This is a hands-on, discussion-driven course where you’ll debate, simulate, and analyze real-world media dilemmas. You’ll finish by investigating a contemporary digital puzzle and propose your own perspective on how we might reconnect in a changing media landscape.

Learning Objectives   

By the end of this  course, you will be able to:

1. Explain how digital media shape social life, political participation, and cultural belonging.

2. Critically analyze both the promises and perils of emerging technologies.

3. Apply key theories of media, community, and technology to real-world cases explored on study tours and in class debates.

4. Reflect on your own position within digital networks and articulate how these insights connect to your academic and professional paths.

Faculty

This course will be taught using a combination of methods. There is a strong emphasis on participation and class discussions and while I am responsible for the overall structure of the class, all of us will contribute to the production of knowledge. 

Overall, the aim is to create a classroom space characterized by respect and willingness to listen/consider others’ perspectives, where it is safe to explore ideas together and individually, even when they are not fully conceptualized or thought through. This requires a great amount of trust in each other and a willingness and curiosity to consider each other’s arguments.

Core Course Week / Short Study Tour: Aarhus 

This study tour explores how digital media and technology shape everyday life, inclusion, and cultural identity in Denmark. Through visits to media organizations, research institutions, and civic innovation spaces, students will connect theory to practice by examining how digital tools foster both connection and control within communities.

Long Study Tour: London and Oxford

Purpose:
This study tour examines how emerging technologies are reshaping governance, media, and community life in the United Kingdom. Students will engage directly with policymakers, journalists, and academics who work at the intersection of technology, communication, and public life.

Required Readings 

Course readings are found on Canvas. Before each class, you are expected to read the texts assigned for the class.

Expectations of the Students

I put a strong emphasis on participation and active listening both in class - but especially when we are on study tours, fields visits etc. This is reflected in the grading scheme below.

A word about grades 

I realize that grades are important to you, but try not to let your anxiety about grades deter you from taking intellectual risks and learning just for the joy of learning. I do not grade to punish or reward you just as the grade is not an indication of our evaluation of you as a person. The grade is an honest assessment of your academic performance. 

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org