Welcome to Media and Culture Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz!
Media and Culture Studies assumes an intrinsic relationship between media and culture: Every culture shapes its media formations, just as all cultural processes are fundamentally determined by media. We therefore understand media not as neutral channels of transmission, but as active mediators of human access to the world. Media shape sensual perception, they generate, store, and process knowledge, and they inform social relations and political publics. Our starting point is thus a broad concept of media encompassing classical mass and communication media (books, newspapers, film, radio, television, internet) as well as technical apparatuses and institutions, architectures, transport infrastructures, and bodies. According to this understanding, media are not solely oriented towards human communication and the transmission of meaning; rather, their inherent logic comes into view, i.e. their materiality, modes of operation, and ecological embedding.
The study of media and culture provides knowledge and skills
- for the theoretical, historical and critical analysis of digital and non-digital media cultures,
- for reflecting specialized discourses and debates conducted throughout society,
- for a competent assessment of media-related phenomena and problems in the fields of art, society, science and technology.
