Introduction
With social media and other digital platforms, people have gained new channels to express their own opinions, desires, and needs. Digitalization has expanded our opportunities to communicate and engage, increased access to information, and helped democratize the public sphere. At the same time, this new digital reality mirrors or reinforces old power structures. The internet has opened global markets and networks but has also made a few players very powerful. Power and powerlessness go hand in hand, and for better or worse, global technology giants have changed the premises of human communication, the role of traditional media, freedom of expression and democracy. Thus, much is at stake in societal development, where topics such as monopolization, algorithmic power, and behavioral surveillance are the seeds of major dilemmas and controversies.
In this course, students will acquire basic knowledge about technological developments in a broad economic, social, and cultural context, to independently reflect on how digitalization affects power relations in the world.