• Rohrbach Tobias

• Kukles Yulia

This course examines how digital journalism and broader forms of online content creation shape today’s communication environments. Students explore the shifting boundaries between journalistic and non journalistic production logics, tracing how professional newsrooms, influencers, activists, creators, and platform-native media actors develop content, cultivate audiences, and sustain themselves economically. Through contemporary empirical research and real world examples, the course investigates emerging business and monetization models, evolving content formats, and the technological infrastructures that enable or constrain creative work. Throughout, students engage with theoretical perspectives that help them critically assess the power dynamics, ethical tensions, and societal implications of digital content ecosystems. By the end of the course, participants will be equipped to analyze and interpret the rapidly changing landscape of digital media production with nuance and critical insight.

• Identify and compare journalistic and non journalistic logics of digital content production across platforms and actor types.
• Analyze how business models, monetization strategies, and platform incentives shape content creation practices.
• Evaluate the technological opportunities and constraints that influence digital storytelling, distribution, and audience engagement.
• Critically interpret contemporary empirical research on digital journalism, creator cultures, and platformized media environments.
• Assess the ethical, political, and societal implications of digital content production, including issues of visibility, credibility, and power.
• Apply theoretical frameworks to develop informed, critical perspectives on the role of digital media in social impact communication.

15 minutes

Only as a retake exam

Students will hand in graded work during the semester (50%) and be asked to critically discuss an example of digital content creation at a 15 min final oral exam (50%).

Course with continuous evaluation: withdrawing or unenrolling from the course will no longer be possible after the registration period (see the session calendar on the Faculty website).