124266 KO Critical Media Analysis (2017S)

We live in an age of forced migrations and mass displacements. The ‘refugee’ and the ‘asylum seeker’ have become iconic figures of the 21st century. According to Hanna Arendt, language, meaning, the faculty to recount and narrate our life-story, is not only what distinguishes us from other living beings; it is the very precondition for being and remaining human.
Are refugees “speechless emissaries,” as Liisa Milkki has powerfully suggested – faceless objects of humanitarian discourse – or subversive and resilient bloggers?
In this course we will analyze how the ‘refugee’ is represented across different media and public ‘domains’. Since trauma is increasingly being ‘posted,’ we will scrutinize the “infrastructure of humanitarian storytelling” (Whitlock) and compare it to other new forms of ‘online testimonies’ – journalistic accounts and personal blogs. We will ask ourselves what it means to ‘narrate’ trauma from a “world of camps” (Agier), what it means to testify within the new digital archive of the 21st century.
The course is aimed at both BA students and teacher trainees. The aim is to familiarize students with both theoretical and practical tools to analyse and critically engage with different media contents/contexts.