RMeS RMa Course | Disinformation and Media: Cultures, Infrastructures, and Regulation

When: April and May 2024 (exact dates, see below)
Time: 13.00-17.00
Where: University of Amsterdam
Credits: 6 EC
Course coordinator: Dr Bharath Ganesh (UvA) and Dr Marc Tuters (UvA)
Guest lectures by: TBA
For: First and second year RMa students in Media Studies, who are members of a Dutch Graduate Research School (onderzoekschool). Students who are members of RMeS will have first access. RMeS staff and PhD researchers are welcome to sit in on specific sessions; PhD researchers can inquire with RMeS should they wish to attend one or more seminars: rmes@rug.nl

Registration will open Fall 2023 via this link.

In the past few years, disinformation has become firmly established as a fundamental concern for digital media studies research. In the process a wide range of perspectives and theories have emerged, including the return to prominence of the ‘media effects’ tradition. This course will situate these developments in the field of ‘disinformation studies’, which includes such concepts as fake news, conspiracy theory and deplatforming.  We will develop critical perspectives on these terms by engaging with recent research into how disinformation is produced, circulated, and  valorized online. In analyzing these dynamics the course will discuss political subcultures, ‘alternative’ content creators, new perspectives on the role of media infrastructures (including software, algorithms, and their affordances) and critically evaluate policy responses to disinformation. Each seminar will focus on an aspect of the field from a specific disciplinary perspective, with students being assessed on the basis of a research paper focused on an empirical case study. Students completing the course will develop advanced perspectives on the contemporary state of disinformation studies by engaging with scholarship from digital research methods, cultural studies, platform studies and political communication.

More information will follow soon.

Venue University of Amsterdam:

tbc

Programme