Teknologia, materiaalisuus ja visuaalisuus konflikteissa, 5 op

This intensive course about how digital images operate in contemporary security politics is focused on peer learning. That means an intensive three days of lectures and lots of work with, feedback to, and learning from other students.

Dates:

• Classroom teaching March 9-11
  
• Deadline for exam project first version three weeks later, (April 1^st)
• Deadline for peer review A one week later (April 8^th)
• Deadline for peer review B one week later (April 15^th)
• Deadline for final exam project and peer feedback response letter three weeks later (May 8^th, since two weeks later is Vappu – you’re welcome to submit before)
• Results no later than June 1^st but depending on your teacher’s parental leave.

Images – photographs, memes, gif’s, data visualizations, and videos – have become ever more central to the production of global politics on an everyday basis. From citizen’s snapshots, across non-state armed actors’ propaganda videos to great power competition, images are an increasingly central site where politics take place. These developments are enabled by the myriad of digital media systems that enable the easy sharing and dissemination of images.

The Peace, conflict, and security in digital visual media course is an introduction to how we can understand the interplay between new visual media and the political developments taking place through them. It introduces semiotic, discursive and actor-network-based models of analysing images and their mediation. The focus of the course is on developing strategies for analysing how images become able to participate effectively in the political processes surrounding security, war and conflict.

The course gives students the analytical apparatus to critically evaluate the interplay between new visual media and contemporary conflict, security politics and resistance to such politics.
It provides the students with tools to analyse, understand, and evaluate images, and focus on three moments

1. The interpretation (meaning) and distribution (spread) of digital images, and the interplay of the two. This is the key to understanding the political significance of a digital image

2. The possible mis-match between political theory and networked digital media

3. The ways in which digital images have been successful at driving security politics.

This enables the students to discuss not only how different theories can give different readings of the ways in which images work in politics, and opens up a space for students to take part in understanding how different new digital media platforms (YouTube, 8chan, WeChat, choose your own) do visual politics differently.

The course is focused on understanding and developing theories and methods for analysing images. But the students will also become familiar with key visual moments in recent history (e.g. the Zapruder video, Huynh Cong Ut’s Vietnam ‘napalm girl’ photo, Kevin Carter’s Somalia ‘vulture’ photo, the Al-Durrah video from the 200 intifada, 1991 gulf war videos, Sept. 11 images, Al-Qaeda videos, Abu Ghraib photographs, 2009–2011 protest videos, Collateral Murder (the helicopter video leaked by Chelsea Manning and published by WikiLeaks), the (lack of) images from Bin Laden killing (+Hillary), ISIS recruitment videos, and images of and responses to chemical weapons use in the conflict in Syria.

Evaluation

Students are expected to participate actively during lessons and to put as much energy and thought into peer evaluation (evaluation of fellow students’ assignments) as into their own essays. After the course, students will demonstrate capability to apply what they have learned through an essay on a topic of their own choosing, as well as through dialogue with peers about both their own and their peers projects.

Evaluation will be based on the quality of peer feedback (50%) and the final essay including the response letter to the peer feedback received (50%).

To pass the course, all four written assignments will have to be completed:

Course essay (min. 2000 words)
Peer review A (min. 350 words)
Peer review B (min. 350 words)
Peer response letter (min. 350 words, responding to the feedback given in the two reviews you have received)

Readings

Students are expected to read the given texts in advance, and be ready to discuss readings in class.

Due to the intensive structure of the face-to-face teaching (12hrs in 3 days), there will be exercises that build on texts that have not been presented beforehand, so do read all material in advance.

Teaching sessions

Teaching sessions (12hrs) will consist of a mix of lectures and seminar work. Students are expected to have familiarized themselves with the reading materials and be ready to participate in discussions.

Due to the intensive structure of the face-to-face teaching (12hrs in 3 days), there will be exercises that build on texts that have not been presented beforehand, so do read all material in advance. A

Peer feedback

Students will participate in improving the draft essays written by their peers, with each student producing written responses to two peers.

Peer reviews are to be written in a constructive and kind tone, aimed at being helpful but also scrutinizing the ideas and analysis offered by peers.

Each peer response should be at least 350 words and contain both theoretically informed positive evaluation of a part of the essay reviewed (what was especially good, and why), and theoretically informed suggestions for how the essay could be even better at treating its subject or reflecting its analysis back onto the theory used (what could be improved, or which ideas may your peer have missed that could contribute to their analysis). Peer reviews are posted to moodle and open for discussion in the learning environment.

The final version of the course essay (after peer reviews) is to be submitted alongside with an approximately 350 word peer response letter sent to the reviewers as well as submitted with the essay. It is entirely okay NOT to use any suggestion provided by peer reviewers, but the decision to follow or not follow suggestions should be justified in the peer response letter.

Course essay

All participants in the course are required to research and write an essay on a topic related to the course. The essay is expected to clearly define and delimit the topic or theme, to use the literature and methods introduced in the course, to examine and analyze the relevant material and to present your argument on the basis of this analysis. Outstanding essays will demonstrate an ability to reflect on the choices of theory and methods, and to reflect the findings of the analysis back onto the theory and methods used.

Students are free to choose their essay topic and are encouraged to consider possible topics throughout the course.

The essay is required to be approximately 2000 words, not counting the cover page, list of contents and bibliography.
The first deadline of the essays is April 1^st, and the second deadline (after peer review) is 8^th of May. General instructions related to essay-writing can be found in the Guide to Writing Academic Papers