RMeS Summer School 2016: Utrecht University
In the summer of 2016 there will be a RMeS Summer School with the title: "Datafied Media Historiography"
| When | June 22 – 24, 2016 |
|
| Where | Utrecht University, The Netherlands | |
| For | PhD Candidates and RMa Students | |
| ECTS | 2 ECTS / 5 ECTS (with paper) | |
| Organizers | Prof. Frank Kessler (UU) & Prof Mark Deuze (UvA/RMeS) | |
| Confirmed Speakers |
Prof. dr Barbara Flueckiger (University of Zurich) | Prof. dr Julia Noordergraaf (UvA) | Prof. dr Sonja de Leeuw (UU) | Prof. dr Eggo Müller (UU) | Dr Jasmijn van Gorp (UU) | Dr Sabine Lenk (UU) | |
| Registration |
Abstract
The numerous initiatives worldwide to digitize newspapers, books, trade journals, photos, posters, films and other source material for media historical research have radically transformed our field. From a situation of scarcity of accessible material we have come to a situation of abundance, maybe even overabundance. In addition, digital tools allow to develop new research questions based on ‘big data’ and ‘distant readings’.
These new possibilities, however, lead also to new challenges, as we have to learn to critically assess the digitized materials, the databases in which they are made available as well as the digital tools we use to explore them. So what does source critique mean for datafied media historiography? How does the digitized artifact, text or image relate to its analogue counterpart? What kind of bias can there be in a database and how can we take it into account when extracting data from it? What impact does the choice of a given tool have?
These questions will be discussed during the three days of the summerschool through lectures and workshops. PhDs and RMA students will learn about the possibilities of doing media history with the aid of digital tools, but also about the need to critically assess the digitized materials and digital tools.
