ICT, Media, Communication and Journalism

The main objectives of the programme are to provide supervision, courses, International research networks and environments for graduate students within the studies of information and communication technologies, print, digital and audio-visual media, and journalism. The research environments are International and include approximately 140 employees, spanning across a wide array of research fields and topics. The PhD research projects predominantly belong to one of two groupings: Humanities and IT, and Media and Journalism studies.
The PhD research projects in the programme are often conducted on a cross-disciplinary basis, as the research questions arising from this incessantly changing and dynamic area are highly influenced by both technological, economic, political and cultural developments, and thus require a wide array of approaches. Research in the programme is therefore characterised by the use of a broad span of different theoretical concepts and perspectives, and methods and approaches from both sociology (e.g., ethnography, or surveys), the humanities (e.g., textual analysis or discourse analysis), new digital methods (e.g., network analysis), and in certain fields also by implementing practice-based approaches in the research processes (e.g., artistic or design development).
Humanities and IT Research is done into the social role of information technologies (STS), interaction design/HCI, and in cultural-aesthetic studies of software systems and infrastructures. Topics may for instance include the role and nature of surveillance technologies; the uses of IT in the health and care sector; the construction and implementation of technologies in labour practices; human-computer interaction; explorative programming practices and digital literacies; the uses of IT in learning environments; IT in creative design processes; technology critique, critical design; digital art/aesthetics; electronic literature; sound studies, technologies in urban and public settings; and more.
Media and Journalism studies Research is done into transnational and global media institutions, e.g. by focusing on (social) media formats’, consumption, production and archiving processes; and everyday practices, economic structures and media services relating to this. Topics may for instance include audio podcasts, television series formats, self-tracking, and more. The research may moreover relate to collective user behavior in digital communication spaces affected by A.I. and automations, e.g., by focusing on issues of privacy and ethics. Furthermore, research is done into journalistic practices and services in the wake of new digital markets and reconfigured news practices, values and economic opportunities. Topics relating to this include cultural journalism as well as media and journalism studies in the Global South.