The Mediated State

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

The increasingly technologically connected world has seen a rise of multinational companies that can reach across borders and exercise influence and power to affect governance, social fabrics, identity, cognition, and even our sense of time and space. The purpose of this course is to better understand the role of information in this environment and how unique information levers allow for the manipulation of power at every level of society to achieve desired outcomes. We will extensively analyze how information has disrupted traditional relationships between individuals, groups, companies, governments, and states. This course will provide common terminology and frameworks to analyze and discuss the uses of information to exercise power within national governments and commercial entities. Students will have the opportunity to read thematic texts, case studies, policy, and theory.