Video essays are film or media analyses that are themselves audiovisual. Here, students of the Master’s program in Social and Business Communication present and discuss video essays that they have produced in the context of various courses taught by Prof. Dr. Brigitte Weingart (Chair of Media Theory). 

Shaniqua Packruhn, Celebrity Körper, 2022, 14:47 (German)

Produced in the research seminar „Stars – Celebrities – Influencer” (Prof. Dr. Brigitte Weingart & Guests)

Xu Chen & Dmytro Tkalenko, Wednesday Dance Trend: Viral spread in the era of social media, 2023, 6:15 (English)

This project analyzes the “Wednesday dance” trend to find out why and how it became viral, and attempts to identify a general pattern by comparing it with some other dance trends.

Produced in the research seminar „If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead” on epidemiological approaches to society, economics, and culture (Prof. Dr. Franz Liebl & Prof. Dr. Brigitte Weingart)

Giada Armante, Maradona in È STATA LA MANO DI DIO: From Rumor to Legend, 2023, 7:48 (German)

The video essay explores the relationship between gossip, rumor, and legend surrounding Diego Maradona in the film “È stata la mano di Dio” (Paolo Sorrentino, 2021). The essay uses film footage and media reports to illustrate these connections.

Produced in the MA introductory seminar to audiovisual communication, focusing on „Connections“

Leonard Schulz, POLITFLUENCING, 2022, 5:54 (German)

Produced as an alternative research paper in the MA program’s area “Audiovisual Communication”

Louisa Zimmer, Mimetik, Sound, Wholesomeness: Ein Videoessay über Nathan Apodacas “morning vibe”, 2021, 5:55 (German)

In this first semester video essay, a desktop documentary approach is used to link the early TikTok meme “morning vibe” to Limor Shifman’s meme theory.

Produced in the MA introductory seminar to audiovisual communication, focusing on “Copy Cultures – Media Practices of Appropriation” 

Hannah Blumas, Female Masturbation in U.S. Cinema – Between Dependence and Independence, 2020, 22:15 (English)

Female masturbation is still taboo. The video essay unravels the media representation of autoeroticism and its patriarchal dependence in US cinema. Using feminist film theory, concepts of shame, hysteria and male gaze are juxtaposed with the approach of dialogue, female authorship and “oppositional gaze”. All this leaves no doubt: we must masturbate for our independence – especially on screen.

Produced in a research seminar on “Media and Affects” (Prof. Dr. Monika Suckfüll & Prof. Dr Brigitte Weingart

Hannah Blumas, Knead to Know, 2023, 9:45 (English)

Wandering through a landscape of past, present and future memories. One's own and collective bodies are recalled and reclaimed through embodied ritual. Guided by material, moulded into the mass, vulnerability erodes. An uncanny movement of desire and imagination leaves an imprint.

Produced as part of a Master’s thesis, supervised by Prof. Dr Brigitte Weingart and Prof. Timothee Ingen-Housz

Elea Lackner, Bimbofication, 2022, 12:27 (German)

Produced in the research seminar “Stars – Celebrities – Influencer” (Prof. Dr. Brigitte Weingart & Guests)