ForContext - Strengthening critical media literacy with digital tools
The ‘Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre’ is funding the project as part of ‘Freiraum 2025’
Head: Prof. Dr. Martin Langner
Team: Mohamed Basuony, N.N.
Our communication is multimodal. Audio-visual media in all their forms of expression are becoming increasingly important and are shaping public discourse. However, images are not only used illustratively, just as words are not only used descriptively. The messages of texts and images are independent and can support (or contradict) each other. The same applies to music, theatre, film, etc. Only the context in which they are embedded unfolds their multimodal effect. Current research positions in the Digital Humanities combine methods of natural language processing and image pattern recognition to better grasp the meaning of these statements.
The aim of ForContext is to be able to jointly examine and teach these different levels of communication. To this end, a central online instance is being created that will present practical applications of digital media analysis and teach them in short learning units. In the area of text and language, such a platform already exists with fortext.net. However, there is nothing similar for images or for the combination of images, text and sound.
There is also a lack of more advanced content that establishes a connection to the students' everyday use of visual media and provides them with methods and tools to critically engage with multimodal communication. This applies even more to students of linguistics and literary studies, who sometimes have only a limited understanding of the different forms of expression in audio-visual communication.
In addition to the comprehensive explanation of the theories, methods and tools on a separate website, the aim is to develop many use cases and learning units to exemplify the multimodal contexts in social and scientific discourse for as many Humanities subjects as possible. These case studies and learning units will be approached less from an art historical perspective and more from a general media studies perspective. In addition to forms of expression of high culture and illustrations of literary works, they will include, in particular, audio-visual expressions of daily use, such as comics, advertising, television programmes and social media statements.
This broader understanding of the multimodal contexts of social and scientific communication is to be developed together with students in the context of classes and project workshops. Part of the work will be done in student projects.
In doing so, it is important to us that we use language that students can understand. This is because the practical benefit of this project from the students‘ point of view is paramount. Therefore, the selection of use cases should also be based on the students’ ideas and developed together with them. These requirements will be evaluated at the project workshops and adapted accordingly.