Welcome to ATEC 6V81, The History and Theory of Emerging Media. The title for this course is a bit deceptive, as it is not a history course, but rather the history of the theory. It is in fact not even about “Emerging Media,” or not about Emerging Media specifically. That is, it is my contention that to understand “Emerging Media” (or the more common “Digital Media”) one first has to understand the history of how we have come to understand media. Thus, the class will be divided between looking at some classic “media theory” and looking at how these ways of thinking about media have changed, adapted, been repurposed, in the age of emerging media. Obviously this is way too broad a topic for us to cover in one semester, so I had to pick and choose, and we will only begin to really scratch the surface of approaches to media. I have divided the class into several themes, as you can see from the syllabus. It is my hope that by taking this approach you will all build a broad base of knowledge which will help you understand media, but also to begin to build you own critical approach to thinking about these emerging digital media. As you can see from the schedule of readings, the reading for this class is heavy, but this will be your primary assignment: to have read and thought about these ideas, and come to class prepared to discuss them. We will discuss this all in more detail on the first day, January 15th.
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