Intro to Digital Technology & Emerging Media DTEM1401 (Spring 2019)
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?
Week 1 Introduction, Access, & Media History
Greenfield: A Sociology of the Smartphone Longreads
Smartphones have altered the texture of everyday life, digesting many longstanding spaces and rituals, and transforming others beyond recognition.
It’s not you. Phones are designed to be addicting.
Week 2 Identity & Community
Why 23 million Americans don’t have fast internet
Is The Internet A Luxury Or A Right? | AJ+
The Future of America
Week 3 Participatory Culture and fan production
Henry Jenkins on Participatory Culture (Big Thinkers Series)
Everything is a Remix Remastered (2015 HD)
Moderators Speak Out About Abuse On Reddit
Week 4 Surveillance and Privacy
An Introduction to Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish – A Macat Sociology Analysis
PHILOSOPHY – Michel Foucault
Surveillance and Race Online | Simone Browne at MozFest
Online Privacy: How Did We Get Here? | Off Book | PBS Digital Studios
The Power of Privacy – documentary
Surveillance and the City: Know When You’re Being Watched
Week 5 Media Influencers
Week 6 AstroTurfing & Trolls
Astroturf and manipulation of media messages | Sharyl Attkisson
Astroturfing: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Are Internet Trolls Born or Made?
Week 7 Technology, Body & Death
Is It Okay To Mourn Celebrity Death Online? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios
Week 8 Selfies, Oversharing & Sharing
SEMIOTICS: The theory behind media literacy
Murphy, K. What Selfie Sticks Really Tell Us About Ourselves
Should You Post A Selfie?
The Art of the Selfie | Art History Lesson
The Art History of the Selfie | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios
What Is The Treachery of Images?
What is Semiotics? A short film by Creative Semiotics
Week 9 Digital Memory & Forgetting
Forgetting is a part of memory | Richard Morris | TEDxMadrid
Is Google Killing Your Memory?
Week 10 CLOSED SPRING RECESS
Week 11 Politics in the Digital Age
Piercing the Narrative: Political Deceit in a Social Media Age | Matt Katz | TEDxCapeMay
The impact of social media in political debate | Mark Shephard | TEDxGlasgow
How politicians troll the media
Week 12 Online Activism
Social movements | Society and Culture | MCAT | Khan Academy
Episode #083 Henry David Thoreau – https://youtu.be/Kl1Ao4PJa-I
Civil Disobedience – https://youtu.be/elrTpoY6AYQ
Thoreau and Civil Disobedience – https://youtu.be/gugnXTN6-D4
Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail – https://youtu.be/s5Y-64GJT8E
Is The Internet a Public Place? – https://youtu.be/FmZbdaqGqlc
Week 13 Fake News and Manufactured Outrage
Fake news wasn’t the biggest media problem of 2016
How Social Media Makes Us Angry All the Time | Molly Crockett
Week 14 Body Mods & Quantified Self
SHIFT: Biohacking Documentary
The Man Biohacking Encryption From His Garage
The Quantified Self: Data Gone Wild?
Quantified Self: Your Digital Self-Help Mentor | Nichol Bradford
Week 15 Friending, dating and relating
How I hacked online dating | Amy Webb