Media Studies examines the history, technology, aesthetics and theory of media. It examines the interactions between media and culture, society, politics and the economy. Its subject area ranges from the earliest forms of images, writing and numbers to book printing, photography, film, television, radio, music and sound to digital media networks and computer code. Media Studies examines the dynamics of these developments right up to our digital present. It analyzes the use of media and the material character of analog and digital media and examines the media conditions and possibilities of our thinking, perception and actions.

In line with this research focus, the Master's degree subject is divided into four modules that make up the courses:

• Theoretical perspectives: This module deals with theories, models of thought and systems of thought with regard to media, media processes and structures. In addition to media theories in the narrower sense, other forms of representation that deal specifically with media, the concept of media or the question of media communication can also be dealt with. Based on case studies and current research questions, the scope and explanatory power of media theoretical and historiographical figures of thought, arguments and explanatory patterns will be discussed. The focus is on analyzing the systematics and history of theory as well as on the application of theory and the development of theoretical questions.
• Cultural techniques:This module is devoted to the interplay of practices, materialities and media involved in the emergence of culture. At the center of the module are questions about the inscriptions and forms of circulation, transfers, translations and shifts with which cultural knowledge is generated and conveyed. Students will develop systematic and historical perspectives on the media-technical course of cultural processes, which is always initiated and controlled by fundamental practices such as descriptions, calculations, measurements or coding. Based on current research questions, the aim is to understand and master the forces and mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance and development of culture.
• Strategies of the digital:This module offers an in-depth examination of the logics and effects of digitality and digitalization on the production, distribution, circulation, perception, reception and transmission of data, information and knowledge. Current practices of the digital are fanned out and reflected upon with reference to concrete media-historical and media-archaeological forms and constellations. Contrary to what is often assumed, the digital has not only become effective since its electronic processing, but can be traced back to symbolic practices of transferring the analog world of materials and things into codes that can be read and processed by humans or machines. Differentiating, coding, transferring, combining, regulating and controlling can therefore be understood as the fundamental strategies of the digital, which need to be analyzed in terms of continuities, breaks, shifts and mutations.
• Research-oriented studies: The focus of this module is on guided, independent research within the framework of a research seminar. Students gain insights into the planning and implementation of larger research projects and are thus introduced to the methods and techniques of advanced scientific work. The aim is to develop the ability to conduct independent research and to present the results in an appropriate form. It is just as much about the critical analysis of machine code as it is about questions of the socio-cultural effects of media techniques.