The syllabus is here.
It is useful for you to know how technology works. Unfortunately we will not be able to go through this in great detail in the course. Fortunately there are some excellent resources online. See for example: How does the Internet work?, How Internet Infrastructure Works, and McNamee et al, How the Internet Works: A guide for policy-makers. European Digital Rights. Also check out Julien Hopkins: How to Define Social Media – An Academic Summary. Smith, A., & Anderson, M. (2018).
Social media use in 2018. Pew Research Center http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/
Quiz: Our Surveillance Society or Black Mirror
This quiz asks if you can tell the difference between surveillance techniques which currently exist and techniques used in Black Mirror episodes. For each question select Surveillance Society or Black Mirror. This was inspired by @hypervisible’s thread on invasive surveillance.
Tim Wu, The Tyranny of Convenience, New York Times Opinion. Feb. 16, 2018.
Convenience is the most underestimated and least understood force in the world today. As a driver of human decisions, it may not offer the illicit thrill of Freud’s unconscious sexual desires or the mathematical elegance of the economist’s incentives. Convenience is boring. But boring is not the same thing as trivial.
Jay Owens, Post-Authenticity and the Ironic Truths of Meme Culture, Medium. April 11, 2018.
Reality’s been having a tough time of it lately. From fake news to fake video to the utter charade of our Instagram personas, ‘authenticity’ seems to be over. When everything is an ironic meme, what are the new vectors for talking truth?
In 2017 Jean Twenge wrote that smartphones have destroyed your generation and made several claims about you and your phones. Is she right about you?
Introduction
MODULE 1
Greenfield: A Sociology of the Smartphone Longreads & Twenge: Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
Watch: Black Mirror: Nosedive (S0301)
MODULE 2
Manovich: New Media: A User’s Guide & Bernstein: Alienated, Alone, & Angry: What the Digital Revolution Really Did To Us.
Watch: The American Meme
MODULE 3 History & Infrastructure
Stallman: The GNU Project and Cohen: Internet History
Watch: Digits: Connecting to the Future (Schnall, 2016)
MODULE 4 Reality & Hyperreality, Control
Lessig: What things regulate and Winner: Do artifacts have politics
Watch: Black Mirror (S02E01) Be Right Back
MODULE 5 Selfies
Tiidenberg: How do we selfie and Selfies are just the contemporary version of the art masters’ self-portraits and Nikunen Once a refugee selfie activism
MODULE 6 Digital Labor
Digital labour platforms and the future of work Chap 1, 2
Watch Black Mirror (s01e02) 15 Million Merits
MODULE 7 Identity
Kang & Wei: Let me be at my funniest and McInroy & Craig: Online fandom
Watch Black Mirror (S05E01) Striking Vipers
MODULE 8 Surveillance and Privacy
Watch Black Mirror (s04e02) Arkangel
MODULE 9 TBA
MODULE 10 Algorithms of Control
Watch Black Mirror (S03E05) Men Against Fire
MODULE 11 Digital Activism
Milan Enter the WhatsApper and Madison & Klang The Case for Digital Activism
Watch Black Mirror (s03e06) Hated in the Nation
MODULE 12 Trolling
Massanari: #Gamergate and Hannan Trolling ourselves to death
Watch Black Mirror (S03E03) Shut up and Dance
MODULE 13 Future of Property
Perzanowski & Schultz End of Ownership Chapter 8
Watch Black Mirror (s02e04) White Christmas
MODULE 14 Manufactured Outrage
Klang & Madison: Vigilantism or Outrage and Al-Rawi & Rahman: Manufacturing rage
Watch Black Mirror (SE0202) White Bear