Media Competence and Digital Literacy
My Studies
The focus of the postgraduate Master's course
Media Competence and Digital Literacy offers students a wide range of subject areas that prepare them for the world of digital media. The course combines media analysis, production and evaluation with networking and collaboration skills. At the same time, the learning process itself is examined by developing media-educational and media-didactic concepts and by consciously assessing your own knowledge and project management techniques. Finally, you will apply these skills and the empirical scientific method to writing your Master’s thesis.
Analysis, interpretation, reception
The media are no longer the business of a few people – the great freedoms and possibilities of the World Wide Web enable all users to publish, select and organise information themselves. Students gain a practical understanding of the qualitative and ethical standards of the new world of media. They learn how to critically analyse and evaluate the new quantities of information.
Participation and design on the web
The sheer quantity of content in the interconnected digital world also puts individual content producers to the test. To distinguish yourself in this field, you need to know what constitutes good content and you have to be able to meet these standards yourself. Students learn about a range of possibilities to produce their own high-level content tailored to the relevant target group.
Networks and collaboration
Working with others and building personal networks in the digital era with its countless voices is essential. Students not only learn how to find their way around these networks, world-class lecturers also give them a solid foundation for their personal career path. They are taught the skills to pass on their knowledge in a user-friendly way and to collaborate successfully in web communities.
Project management
Networks do not build themselves of course, and cooperation within the team also needs to be learned. As an inherently cooperation-focused discipline, students are given ample opportunity to optimise how they collaborate and coordinate with others and to gain a clear picture of their own abilities and strengths.
Understanding the big picture
Traditional approaches are no longer sufficient to fully explain the extensive and constantly changing nature of the information society. Our students therefore learn more than just how to be an excellent networker, astute analyst or innovative creator. They also learn how society, communication and media are entwined in the digital environment, which gives students a clear understanding of the unpredictable digital world.
Reflecting on learning processes
Digital change has also had a significant impact on our learning culture: Conventional media knowledge is not enough to understand fake news, the post-factual society and other aspects of the information society. Students therefore not only learn how to recognise and deal with these phenomena, but also how to communicate and impart these insights and skills to others.
"Media use has changed. Users can publish, select and organise information, network and disseminate information within networks. The acquisition and deepening of media literacy is therefore essential to make it in an environment that is media-ruled and pervaded by digital technologies. And digital skills must go hand in with reflective and communication skills, because they form the basis for participation in an increasingly digitally connected world."