Subject Area: Media, Culture and Technology

Media are increasingly portable, mobile, networked and ubiquitous. But what are the conditions that have given rise to these new media technologies and practices, and how might we respond to new mobile networks and forms of participation that mobile media allow? From mass media to mass migration, mobility is one of the key concepts of modern life. This course investigates mobile media in the context of the pervasiveness of mobility in modern life and the way in technology enables and controls all kinds of mobile cultures.

This subject will survey the history of mobile and portable media from transistor radios through to iPhones within a larger context of mobile cultures in which we move from, village to city, home life to car culture, from airport to internet. Students will be able to investigate the current state of play in the mobile media landscape and contextualise their understanding in a broad cultural, historical and theoretical context.