Profile
The Master's programme in European Media Studies is a cooperative programme run jointly by the University of Potsdam and the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences. The merger of the two institutions results in the profile of a transdisciplinary and cross-university approach that is unique in the German university landscape: it consists of the close amalgamation of theoretical reflection and analysis with practical media design and conception.
In the Master's programme, perspectives of cultural and media studies are taught with consideration of current research. The focus is on questions of media theory, media aesthetics and media art as well as on investigations of concrete media configurations, strategies and media cultural history(s). A comprehensive overview of the methods and history of media theories and media cultures will be developed. In the sense of the European idea of transnational connections, this is transnationally oriented, but does not remain limited to Europe in its international perspective. Explicitly and in the awareness that Europe is constituted in exchange, interaction and also in conflicts with other regions, European Media Studies transcends territorial and cultural boundaries, pursues media studies issues on this side and beyond European traditions and thus enables a critical examination of European history and the present.

The Master's programme combines the analysis and conception of concrete media productions and constellations with fundamental questions of mediality. Research foci on e.g. sensory and affective media, hybridisation of media as artistic practice, use and dispositives of media, media ecology and geology, digitality and materiality, photography and radio, film and digital media, education and play, gender, racism and postcolonialism are made productive for the examination of current and historical phenomena. The theoretical orientation finds its counterpart in practical projects that take into account current developments in the field of media design, art and the production of digital media.
At the heart of European Media Studies is the assumption of a fundamental interlocking of theory and practice, which are examined in terms of their interactions. Just as every form of media practice realises implicit or explicit theoretical assumptions, so too does every form of theory realise itself as a particular practice. In this sense, the study programme is dedicated to both practice in theory and theory in practice. Therefore, what is taught here is to expose theoretical positions (as aesthetic research) in practical work, to reflect on these positions in projects themselves and, in the same way, to deal with the medial practices of theory work (such as writing)."
The programme can thus be completed with a purely theoretical-textual piece of work as well as with a practical project work (such as video projects, audio walks, installations, etc.), the theoretical-textual part of which substantiates the conception and implementation of the media project.

This programme is made possible by a high supervision ratio, with about 15 teachers responsible for an MA class of 20 students, including six full-time professors and one part-time professor. Students have access to audio, video and photo studios, to computer and editing labs, as well as to the largest computer game collection at a German university. The close links with the Centre for Computer Games Research (DIGAREC) at the University of Potsdam and with the Brandenburg Centre for Media Studies (ZeM) strengthen the resources for studying in dialogue with current media developments and research.
Great emphasis is placed on free research projects that creatively intertwine theory and practice.
In the course of their studies, students gain insights into the structure, history, mode of action and performance of media processes, among other things, through aesthetic and theoretical discussions as well as creative dealings with media. The degree programme responds to the growing demand of the international labour market for a qualification that combines analytical and conceptual competences with design and technical skills.
The Master's programme in European Media Studies can be followed by a doctoral programme.


Aims and possible occupational fields
The main goal is to enable graduates to deal independently and critically with media and cultural theories as well as to realise their own media projects at an advanced level. The Master's programme thus responds to the flexibility of the labour market in the field of media, to the high expectations of independent creative work as well as to the permanent change in the contemporary media landscape. With a successfully completed Master's degree in European Media Studies, expertise in the analysis, design and criticism of the media as well as content-related cultural management is acquired. This includes in particular:

• a conceptual toolkit for the analysis of media processes and phenomena as well as the ability to independently acquire further terminologies
• the conception, realisation and presentation of one's own aesthetic projects at a high level
• critical reflection on creative processes and products
• a deeper understanding of the theory and history of the media as well as of media aesthetics and media art in an international context
• the development of an advanced understanding of the cultural and historical conditionality of media, their interactive networking, their interaction and their conflicts as well as the performance of complex media environments
• the ability to analyse aesthetic and media strategies and forms of staging

Critical examination of media theories and their genesis and validity.
Possible occupational fields include the entire spectrum of media research in academia, the wide-ranging and versatile fields of media production in e.g. television, film, theatre, radio, print and online media, in the art world and cultural management, in public relations and marketing, in museums and archives, as well as independent media production and services; in addition, there is the even wider spectrum of companies and institutions that react to the dynamic development of new media conditions and effects under the influence of progressive digitalisation and internet-based globalisation.

Requirements
For the Master's programme at the University of Potsdam, proof of a completed Bachelor's degree or an equivalent degree is required (for more detailed information, see "Application").

The degree programme is divided into ten modules, each of which must be completed to a certain minimum extent:

Module 1: Medium and Mediality
The basic module deals with various definitions of the medium as well as theories of the medial in an international context. Participation in an introductory lecture and a seminar followed by a term paper is compulsory.

Module responsibility: Prof. Dr. Jan Distelmeyer (Professur für Geschichte und Theorie der technischen Medien) & Prof. Dr. Birgit Schneider (Professur für Wissenskulturen und mediale Umgebungen)


Module 2: Configurations of the Analogue and Digital
The module focuses on theories of the analogue and the digital as well as the investigation of interfaces between both areas and their design.

Module responsibility: Prof. Dr. Marie-Luise Angerer (Professur für Medientheorie/Medienwissenschaft) & Prof. Dr. Heiko Christians (Professur für Medienkulturgeschichte)


Module 3: Visuality, Narrativity and Performativity
The module includes the analysis of central medial forms of representation that are connected with the key concepts of visualisation (making visible, picturing), narration and its relationship to temporality and movement (e.g. in text and film) as well as performance and presentation.

Module responsibility: NN (Professur für Medientheorie/Medienwissenschaft) & Prof. Dr. Heiko Christians (Professur für Medienkulturgeschichte)

Module 4: Media Design
This module is a basic module and includes the analysis and conception of media contexts or projects in primarily digital media and their historical predecessors. Knowledge of cross-media design contexts is developed as well as current media technologies are analysed and used.

Module responsibility: Prof. Anne Quirynen (Professur für Bewegtbild) & Prof. Winfried Gerling (Professur für Konzeption und Ästhetik der Neuen Medien)


Module 5: Nonlinear Narrative
This module deals in depth with the conception and design of non-linear structures in digital media. Both the dramaturgy and organisation of "multi"-medial narrative forms and the use of necessarily time-based means in non-linear and interactive contexts are the focus of this module.

Module responsibility: Prof. Anne Quirynen (Professur für Bewegtbild) & Prof. Winfried Gerling (Professur für Konzeption und Ästhetik der Neuen Medien)


Module 6: Media Environments
This module is dedicated to media environments and communication contexts. The focus is on the exemplary analysis and development of such environments. This refers both to physically-spatially coherent environments and to structurally closed but spatially distributed contexts.

Module responsibility: Prof. Anne Quirynen (Professur für Bewegtbild) & Prof. Winfried Gerling (Professur für Konzeption und Ästhetik der Neuen Medien)


Module 7: Experimental Research
The aim of the module is the development of experimental research work by the students themselves. Experimental research is to be understood as the investigation of questions by means of media preparation, which equally includes research, compiling one's own literature, conceptualisation, choice of means of presentation or media format and implementation.


Module 8: Interdisciplinary studies
The interdisciplinary supplementary study programme serves to deepen the offerings from the theory modules 1-3, on the one hand, allowing students to set their own focal points, and on the other hand, to further intensify project work. Offers from the wider pool of the University of Potsdam and the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences as well as from the entire Berlin/Potsdam area can be used for this purpose. Events on European media law, for example, are regularly offered here.

Module responsibility: Prof. Dr. Jan Distelmeyer (Professur für Geschichte und Theorie der technischen Medien) & Prof. Dr. Birgit Schneider (Professur für Wissenskulturen und mediale Umgebungen)


Module 9: Colloquium
The colloquium "Laboratory" supports students in particular in finding topics, operationalising research problems, literature research and structuring papers.

The standard period of study of the Master's degree programme European Media Studies is four semesters including the time for writing the Master's thesis. The programme is structured in such a way that 90 credit points are acquired in the courses (modules 1-9) and 30 credit points with the Master's thesis.

The Master's thesis (processing time 20 weeks) can be submitted both in the form of a scientific paper and a scientifically supervised project work. It is accompanied by a colloquium and concluded with a presentation and an oral defence.

After successful completion, the University of Potsdam, in agreement with the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, awards the degree of "Master of Arts" (M.A.).