080086 SE The role of visual media in knowledge transfer, knowledge loss and fake news (2022W)

Visual media are not only used in our "post-factual" age to propagate the narratives that the elites want to be perceived as reality. Rather, their strategic use can be traced back to antiquity. In pre-modern feudal society, it was of course primarily a matter of convincing a small ruling class of the "correctness" of political and religious structures (self-assurance). Since the public functions as voters and consumer pool, however, visual media have been used as propaganda and advertising "for everyone". Individual events can be invented, erased or reinterpreted, entire systems of thought can be recreated through art. Special attention will be paid to the function of visual media in contemporary conflicts. But "reality" in digital media will also be addressed.
Methodologically, such topics can only be dealt with in a transdisciplinary way. However, iconography and iconology play a decisive role as traditional art historical disciplines. The work is always to be evaluated as a source (not merely as an illustration).
The aim is to promote the students' ability to work on a topic transdisciplinarily and to create knowledge independently; this means: not merely to receive the literature, but rather to deal with it independently and critically and to communicate the findings clearly and concisely in oral and written form, as well as to discuss the theses of the other participants on an equal footing.