Handbook

Note: the course code for this course has been updated to MDIA1092 from 2023.

Data and its rhetoric are all around us. The ways that we imagine and understand data have profound impacts on how the world is organised: how resources are distributed, how information is derived and communicated, how we understand recent events, how value is produced, how we work, how we play, how we understand identity, and how we are subject to policing and surveillance. In this course you will learn to critically analyse and understand data. You will be introduced to key theories that will help you to understand, situate, and interpret data. You will also experiment with data collection, categorisation, analysis, and rendering. The course will give you the tools to evaluate the data that is used by the media, governments, corporations, and civil society to explain and organise the world around you. By the end of the course, you will have gained a solid introduction to the processes involved in working with data and an ability to reflect on current debates about the impact of data on society.