The Social Aspects of the Information Revolution WH-FPZ-I-3-SpoAsReIn
The subject Social Aspects of the Information Revolution focuses on showing the theoretical assumptions of the transformation itself (as a technical and technological progress in relation to the media, especially digital media) and the practical inclinations of the changes: in the technological and communicative spheres, in the material (technical) and linguistic layers. The aim of the classes is to show how information and the ways of interpreting it, the roles of recipients and senders (individual at the end of the 19th century, global [in the 20th century] and - again - individual [the 21st century, the era of hypermedia], as well as patterns of giving information - creative and reproductive patterns - have undergone changes.
Also discussed are the politics of the media (global and individual), the notions of time and narration in the traditional, classical and recent media, the management of these notions in terms of rhetoric and the purpose of conveying information.
Apart from these issues, the issues of human identity in the world of contemporary media are presented, as well as the issues of redefinition of concepts, which, from the scope of broadly understood - classical - humanities, change their meanings or postulate a change of the hitherto definitions on the grounds of contemporary communication theories and global information circulation (the concepts of good and evil, truth - falsehood and probability, mimesis and narration, time and space [media, interpersonal]).
The classes are conducted from an anthropological perspective - taking into account the cultural environment of a human being as a subject of a cultural event, and therefore also as a user of media, both the classic and the most contemporary ones.
(in Polish) E-Learning
(in Polish) Grupa przedmiotów ogólnouczenianych
Subject level
Learning outcome code/codes
Type of subject
Preliminary Requirements
Course coordinators
Assessment criteria
Each subject will first be presented in the form of an introductory lecture on the topic, and then discussed according to the readings assigned for presentation and read by the students. The lecturer has set a specific deadline for each subject (usually 2 academic units), but this will be extended if discussion is needed.
All required readings will be sent via the moodle platform, or UKSW mail.
Final grade based on a three-factor assessment:
1.Attendance in class( up to three absences are allowed)
2. activity (continuous assessment based on student's activity during the course spam and academic knowledge from the required readings).
3.Making a short presentation based on the assigned readings.
Practical placement
n/a
Bibliography
The following readings have been the inspiration for the framework of my course and, although they will not all be directly discussed, they have inspired this course:
1) Benjamin Walter, Passages, ed. by Tiedemann Rolf, transl. Ireneusz Kania, afterword by Zygmunt Bauman, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Cracow 2005;
2) Castells Manuel, Networks of Outrage and Hope. Social Movements in the Internet Age, second edition, Polity Press, Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA , 2015;
3) Dejeka Piotr, Populism and the public sphere. Will populism revitalize the public sphere in Europe?, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UKSW, Warsaw 2019,
4) Habermas Jürgen, Strukturalne przeobrażenia sfery publicznej, translated by Wanda Lipnik, Małgorzata Łukasiewicz, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warsaw 2007;
5) Henrykowska Małgorzata, Technika - Ruch - Informacja. Wiek XIX: komunikacja społeczna na progu audioowizualności, [in:] Nowe Media w komunikacji społecznej w XX wieku. Anthology, ed. Maryla Hopfinger, Oficyna Naukowa, Warsaw 2002;
6) Jarecka Urszula, Unintended consequences of the development of technology in visual culture Published by IFiS PAN, Warsaw 2018
7) McLuhan Marschal, Understanding Media. Extensions of Man, Introduction by Lewis H Laphman, transl. Natalia Szczucka, Wydawnictwa Naukowo Techniczne, Warsaw 2004;
8) Vincent Miller Understanding Digital Culture, Sage Publications 2011, Chapters 4: Digital Inequality: Social, Political and Infrastructural context, p:95-110;Chapter 5: Everyone is Watching': Privacy and Surveillance in Digital Life, p: 111-133; Chapter 6: Information, Politics, Subversion and Warfare, p:134-158, Chapter 8: Social Media and the Problem of Community: Space, Relationships, Networks, p: 184- 206
9) Pariser Eli, The Filter Bubble, How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read, The Penguin Press, New York 2011;
10) Zuboff Shoshana, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Public Affairs, New York 2019.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: