IM 355 Interactive Media Theories, Concepts, and Practices

Spring 2023

Course Goals/Objectives

IM 355 fulfills the Interactive Media core course requirement. IM 355 no longer fulfills a WI-tag.

Goals:

(1) Examine and develop concepts & ideas derived from scholarship about human communication, mass media, and computational digital technologies. New media theory comes from diverse and interdisciplinary sources including (but not limitee to) sociology, psychology, physiology, computer science, and engineering.

(2) Examine and develop conceptual foundations derived from the cultural and commercial dimensions of new media history and technologies. Much new media theory is derived from professional practice, including contemporary/everyday phenomena. Ongoing technological innovations and implementations variously conform to and challenge conceptual understandings and explanations. The course examines the everyday, bringing focus to the taken-for-granted, and testing disciplinary/scholarly knowledge.

(3) Provide you with increased and improved technical & conceptual vocabularies with which to study and discuss conceptual developments.

(4) Develop critical insights about taken-for-granted new media phenomena. You are encouraged to think critically about the roles of media (new and old) in your lives as well as in our cultures.

(5) Develop informed speculations concerning the future of new media with particular attention to the roles of citizens, consumers, and producers. To the degree that “the new media are us,” the course encourages increased awareness, self-consciousness, and a critical attitude toward participation in mediated communication.

Objectives:

In order to meet these goals, you develop the ability to comprehend, identify, apply, and critically evaluate the definitions of the concepts.

For the core concepts presented in lecture/discussion and web notes, you should be able to:

  • write the definitions of the concepts and of their subparts;

  • compare and contrast aspects of the concepts & subparts among each other in order to explain the differences/similarities among them;

  • observe, identify, and illustrate the concepts and subparts in news/media reports of industry developments (not including personal opinion-based, amateur blogs).

For the reading materials, students should be able to:

  • summarize the readings.
  • identify key take-aways from the readings.
Goals and Objectives
Requirements/Expectations
(A) Text Reading Analyses

(B) Concept Analyses

(C) Extra Credit (D) Grading
Special Considerations Concepts Schedule
   

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© Ed Lamoureux, 2023