300656  Migration and Digital Media (MA: Soziologie und Anthropologie der globalen Welt) (S) (WiSe 2026/2027)

This course examines the pivotal role of media in transnational migration. From telegrams and long-distance telephone calls to emails and contemporary digital media primarily social media various media have shaped migrants’ experiences, empowered people on the move, disenfranchised them and facilitate new pathways of migration and mobility. Transnational communication in contemporary times due to social media could begin prior to the actual process of migration - during the preparatory phase and persist throughout migrants’ lives abroad, facilitating sustained connections with their homelands.
In light of this, this course investigates the relation between migration and media by focusing on the modes, purposes, and consequences of transnational communication, alongside its broader impacts on contemporary migration dynamics. While exploring and examining migration-media interface, this course emphasizes that media does not just transform migrants’ experiences, it also produces and facilitates migration. Some of the core readings of this course comes from the scholarships of Arjun Appadurai, Nina Glick Schiller, Keun Leurs, Rianne Dekker, Marie Gillespie, to name a few.
It is structured into four modules: the first provides a critical review of foundational literature at the media-migration nexus; the second engages with recent conceptual and theoretical advancements in the field; the third explores empirical contexts where diverse immigrant communities worldwide participate in transnational media consumption; and the fourth is a practice-driven module, in which students undertake research projects involving fieldwork, data analysis, and presentations.
Course pre-requisites: DiGiM is open to students with some background in Sociology/Social Anthropology/Migration studies/Media Studies/Global Politics/Global South/Global Studies/comparable programs. The course is organized in a way to maximize group readings, discussions and connecting the conceptual with the empirical. The salient requirement is critical thinking and sociological imagination. This is a non-hierarchical course, meaning the students will actively work towards building the last two weeks’ module together with the instructor. For the rest of the thirteen weeks, they are encouraged to add to the readings enlisted by the instructor. Apart from readings, students are encouraged to recommend films and documentaries relevant for the course, that will be included in the course activities (for details, please check the Assessment section).
Course objectives and learning outcome:
To critically examine the evolving role of communication technologies in transnational migration, tracing historical and contemporary media forms that shape migrants’ experiences and connections with their homelands.
To engage with foundational and recent theoretical frameworks that analyze the intersections of media, migration, and transnational communication, fostering advanced conceptual understanding.
To investigate empirical contexts of transnational media consumption among diverse immigrant communities worldwide, analyzing how these practices influence identity formation, diaspora dynamics, and migrant worldviews.
To develop practical research skills through a hands-on practicum involving research design, fieldwork, data analysis, and presentation, enabling students to conduct rigorous studies on migration and digital media.