Philosophy of the Media

Recommended Prerequisites

Cognitive competences presumed in students enrolled in the 2 cycle studies, mainly interpretative skills, but also competences related to autonomous research conducing to the writing of a dissertation MA.

Teaching Methods

Teacher’s Lectures regarding the different topics.

Student’s presentations on specific aspects of the programme, according to a previous schedule.

The rules of assessment to be applied are the official in the Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra.

Learning Outcomes

After the conclusion of the semester the students will be able to
1. identify the main themes and problems of the Media theories and contemporary Philosophy of the Media;
2. classify the themes and problems under specific authors and / or philosophical and scientific theories connected to this area;
3. interpret specific texts where it is possible to perceive the themes and problems of the contemporary Philosophy of the Media and Media theories and be able to formulate hypothesis on the reading results in order to draw research lines;
4. reflect in a personal way about the themes and problems studied during the semester and be able to sketch a dissertation plan in the specialized area of the seminar.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

I – Means of communication, consciousness and the technical reproduction of the consciousness and communication
  1. The definition of media by McLuhan and R. Kittler
  2. Information and meaning – the modes of recodification of the meaning and the information in the contemporary media (R. F. L. Hartley, C. Shannon)
  3. The media as technologies of meaning and information (D. Engelbarth)
  4. The three directions of the contemporary media as recodifications of the sensorial processes according to F. Kittler.
  5. The construction of the film as a special kind of media according to G. Deleuze and the technologies of the image.

II – The generalization of the technical mediations of the communication as a result of the uncoupling of consciousness and communication in modern society.

III – The Theory of Social Systems as a theory of the distinction between consciousness and communication – a reading of N. Luhmann’s opus from the point of view of the media theories.

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Research work: 100.0%

Bibliography

J. D. Bolter /R. Grusin, Remediation. Understanding New Media,Cambridge (Mass.),London, 2000

J. D.Bolter, Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext and the Remediation of Print, Mahwah, NJ., 2000

G.Deleuze, L’ Image-Mouvement. Cinéma 1, Paris, 1983

G.Deleuze, L’ Image-Temps. Cinéma 2, Paris, 1985

N.Goodman, Languages of Art. An Approach to a Theory of Symbols, Indianapolis, Cambridge, 1976

M. B. N.Hansen, New Philosophy for New Media, Cambridge (Mass.), 2006

M. B. N.Hansen, Bodies in Code. Interfaces with Digital Media, New York / London, 2006

F. Kittler, Discourse Networks. 1800 / 1900, Stanford, Standford University Press, 1990

F. Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, Stanford, Standford University Press, 1999

N. Luhmann, Soziale Systeme, Frankfurt / M.,1984

P. Lunenfeld (ed.),The Digital Dialectic,Cambridge (Mass.),London,2000

L. Manovich, The Language of New Media,Cambridge (Mass.),London,2001

M. McLuhan, Understanding Media.The Extensions of Man, London/New York, 1964 (reed. Várias).