Philosophy. Study the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence.

Join us for this ten-week philosophy of media course, as we analyse the concept of ‘media’ and its definition. We will explore the types of ‘media’ from the invention of writing, through print media to telephone, radio, television, and finally the internet.

During this course, we will focus on key philosopher Marshall McLuhan, who is considered by many to be the inventor of media philosophy in its contemporary sense. McLuhan was a visionary in his ideas of how communications would revolutionise the 20th century and beyond. McLuhan’s most famous phrase ‘the medium is the message’ became the catalyst for the media studies industry. We will also consider his revolutionary idea, that the information machine is producing a ‘global village’ which alters our sense of space and time.

The relationship between the human brain and media technologies will also be debated. Nicholas G. Carr’s book The Shallows (2010) is an example of this approach. We will also explore a range of philosophers and neurobiologists on this topic.

Throughout the course, the political and economic impacts of media technologies will be never far from our analysis. There is much new scholarship in this field, for example Tom Wheeler’s new book From Gutenberg to Google (2019).

The course will take both a continental and analytic approach to the issues facing contemporary social media, such as the use of Facebook and Twitter.

Aims

Our aim is that you will leave this course with a historical perspective on the media and the cap