MEVIT4701 ¨C Screen Technologies

Course content

Of what importance are screen technologies for understanding our current screen cultures? Current screen technologies are sought out (cinema, television), chanced on (digital signage advertising), carried (smartphone, tablet and laptop) and worn (smartwatches, smartglasses and other wearable devices).?

The course Screen Technologies focuses on technological approaches to screens, such as the cinema, television, computer, and smartphone screen. The teaching offers critical approaches to one of the most pressing societal challenges: the major technological shifts affecting man and machine, media and cultural products. The course examines the technological infrastructures of screens and screen content, and asks how various screen technologies form, interact and enable production of meaning and narratives. How do, for instance, different algorithms (in social media or elsewhere) afford different kinds of narrative techniques? Depending on the course convenor, a practical element could be included.

Learning outcome

Candidates who have completed the Screen Technologies course will have acquired the following knowledge, skills and general competences:

Knowledge

After completion of the course, the candidate:

• Has advanced knowledge of critical and contextual approaches to various screen technologies, such as television, mobile media, cameras, apps, dashboards, games, social media platforms, and virtual reality (not every iteration of the course covers all examples).
• Understand screen technologies as an interrelationship between historical, social, political, economic and technological factors, with a special focus on digital screen technologies.

Skills

After completion of the course, the candidate:

• Can analyze and interpret media texts and cultural artifacts pertaining to the field of screen technologies independently.
• Can assess relevant existing theories and approaches in researching screen technologies and work independently on practical and theoretical problems.

General competences

After completion of the course, the candidate:

• Can combine knowledge and skills to conduct independent research on a self-chosen subject
• Can critically assess different sources of information to make scholarly arguments, and communicate about academic questions, analyses and findings with specialists and society at large.
• Can use the general competence of writing scholarly about technologies within the field of screen cultures in other academic and professional fields.

Admission to the course

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

This course is offered to the students enrolled in the Master Program "Screen Cultures", but MA students at other programmes can also be enrolled in the course, if there are available spaces.

Teaching

The teaching will consist of a lecture-seminar mix and group work. We expect the students to have read the suggested texts before the lectures and seminar, and that they will actively participate in the teaching.

Compulsory activity:

This course has two compulsory activities:

• An oral presentation in groups, and feedback on another group`s presentation.
• A written group assignment.

The compulsory activities will be assessed as approved/not approved. Approval of both assignments is a prerequisite for being allowed to sit for the examination.??

If you get ill or have other valid reasons for not being able to meet the deadline of the compulsory activities, you must apply for valid absence or postponed deadline.?Read more about compulsory activities at the Faculty of Humanities and find link to the application form.?

Examination

The exam for this course is a term paper of up to ten (10) pages, where each page is calculated to approximately 2300 characters excluding spaces. The page count does not include the front page, literature list/bibliography or appendices.

The compulsory activities must be approved to be able to hand in the term paper.

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.