Media activism has been a burning issue at least since the recent protests of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. This semester, Dr. Philipp Budka is leading the seminar “Media Activism” in the course of studies M.A. Visual and Media Anthropology and he immediately picked up the current developments there. We talked to him about his approach to the topic, the emergence of media activism and upcoming student projects.
On which aspects of this field is your seminar “Media Activism” particularly focused?
Media activism can be understood very generally as a form of activism that aims to bring about social and political change through media practices. The seminar deals with the phenomenon and research field of media activism, especially from a cultural, social anthropological and ethnographic perspective. This means that cultural comparison, critical contextualization and social change are the central issues.
To what extent are the current protests in the United States, and in many other countries around the world, being discussed in the seminar? Or have they perhaps even spontaneously been made the subject of the seminar?
The “Black Lives Matter” movement in the USA, which in the meantime can be understood as a global protest movement, is not part of the elaborated course plan, but of course this – as well as other current phenomena relevant to media activism – will be taken up and discussed with the students. For example, questions about the significance of visual material and its distribution via social media, or questions about information and disinformation processes and practices will be dealt with.
