The aim of this course is to examine the historical development of communication technologies together with social organization, cultural memory, the public sphere, visual regimes, knowledge production, power relations, and everyday life practices (PO1, PO2, PO4). Through the approach of media archaeology, the course aims to critically discuss the historical continuities and ruptures of media such as the printing press, photography, cinema, radio, television, computers, the internet, platforms, and artificial intelligence (PO5, PO7). Students are expected to develop original academic research by relating contemporary digital and algorithmic media environments to historical media forms (PO6, PO8).

Within the frameworks of media archaeology, history of technology, communication theories, and critical media studies, the course examines the cultural history of media technologies such as writing, the printing press, photography, cinema, radio, television, computers, the internet, platforms, and artificial intelligence. It investigates which historical legacies so-called new technologies carry, which old problems they reproduce in new forms, and what forms of social transformation they enable. Students develop an original research paper examining a specific communication technology in its historical, cultural, and theoretical context.