Digital Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison explores the relationship between communication and digital technologies by asking four questions:
- How do digital media affect the ways we communicate?
- How do we use digital tools to best communicate with each other?
- What roles do the visual and sound elements of digital media play and how can we use them?
- How do digital technologies affect the way we access and understand information?
It forges new connections across disciplinary boundaries by addressing distinct yet overlapping areas of intellectual activity:
- Digital Information Structures – the consideration and assessment of how we use and create digital archives, databases, and other digital architectures
- Digital Media – the consideration of how we consume and assess communication that is mediated by digital technologies such as Internet, mobile, and smart devices including digital video and audio content as well as games and simulations produced both in everyday discourse and by media professionals
- Digital Forms – the analysis and assessment of formal elements of digital media that examines both mechanical and aesthetic components including visual, audio, interactivity and other design features
- Digital Practices – the acquisition of skills that allow us to create expressive and strategic communication content using digital tools such as digital video and audio equipment as well as software for video and audio editing, web-design, database and information architecture design, app design, computer simulation, and digital gaming