DTEM1401-Fall20 Readings & Material

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)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/JqamKb7gTWY
Teens, Social Media, and Technology (full film) | FRONTLINE

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

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ms8OdjWJRPY

MODULE 3 History & Infrastructure
Stallman: The GNU Project and Cohen: Internet History

Watch: Digits: Connecting to the Future (Schnall, 2016)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ILQeXZTOpkw
History of the Internet 2018 Documentary

MODULE 4 Reality & Hyperreality, Control

Lessig: What things regulate and Winner: Do artifacts have politics

Watch: Black Mirror (S02E01) Be Right Back

https://www.youtube.com/embed/kicl0pXAJYQ
Introduction to Langdon Winner’s “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” for Digital Culture Students
https://www.youtube.com/embed/EXOv1doHp88
iLaw 2004: Lawrence Lessig on Regulation
https://www.youtube.com/embed/FmZbdaqGqlc
Is The Internet a Public Place?

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

https://www.youtube.com/embed/JfoPJnVrBNM
The Art History of the Selfie | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/embed/q6Mp-kTwjYA
We’re all selfish superficial and too fat? | Katrin Tiidenberg | TEDxTTU
https://www.youtube.com/embed/2j7SIxMGj5Q
Why Do We Hate Selfies? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

MODULE 6 Digital Labor
Digital labour platforms and the future of work Chap 1, 2

Watch Black Mirror (s01e02) 15 Million Merits

https://www.youtube.com/embed/AV4yTgPCHHg
What is the Labor Theory of Value?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/TUmyygCMMGA
The big debate about the future of work, explained
https://www.youtube.com/embed/quWtUnDA8Uk
When Does Play Become Work? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

MODULE 7 Identity

Kang & Wei: Let me be at my funniest and McInroy & Craig: Online fandom

Watch Black Mirror (S05E01) Striking Vipers

https://www.youtube.com/embed/WBYPMQsAZNI
Which identity is your true identity? | Emma Gannon | TEDxHull
https://www.youtube.com/embed/WRiGZJQZ_X4
Is Facebook Changing Our Identity? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

MODULE 8 Surveillance and Privacy

Watch Black Mirror (s04e02) Arkangel

https://www.youtube.com/embed/51G6eii4ZGk
“Unseen – the History of Privacy,” Jill Lepore, The University of Kansas
https://www.youtube.com/embed/rPquYfE2JOc
Surveillance and the City: Know When You’re Being Watched
https://www.youtube.com/embed/AoYC4ogezE4
The Rise of Surveillance Capitalism | Mark Weinstein | TEDxIVC
https://www.youtube.com/embed/t45BoJ_LP1U
Do You “Choose” To Have Your Privacy Invaded By Using Tech? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

MODULE 9 TBA

MODULE 10 Algorithms of Control

Watch Black Mirror (S03E05) Men Against Fire

https://www.youtube.com/embed/oRkNaF0QvnI
Why algorithms are called algorithms | BBC Ideas
https://www.youtube.com/embed/UG_X_7g63rY
How I’m fighting bias in algorithms | Joy Buolamwini

MODULE 11 Digital Activism

Milan Enter the WhatsApper and Madison & Klang The Case for Digital Activism

Watch Black Mirror (s03e06) Hated in the Nation

https://www.youtube.com/embed/OPBozWS6I7A
How teen activists are mobilizing using social media | The Weekly with Wendy Mesley

MODULE 12 Trolling

Massanari: #Gamergate and Hannan Trolling ourselves to death

Watch Black Mirror (S03E03) Shut up and Dance

https://www.youtube.com/embed/c6TrKkkVEhs
Why Are You So Angry? Part 4: An Autopsy on GamerGate
https://www.youtube.com/embed/us4Eti0UmDI
The world’s greatest internet troll explains his craft
https://www.youtube.com/embed/eHSSNyIlAps
The Experience of Being Trolled | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/embed/x69Y61ThyV0
When Is A Troll No Longer A Troll?

MODULE 13 Future of Property

Perzanowski & Schultz End of Ownership Chapter 8

Watch Black Mirror (s02e04) White Christmas

https://www.youtube.com/embed/w2um7tQpYR4
Aaron Perzanowski on The End of Ownership

MODULE 14 Manufactured Outrage

Klang & Madison: Vigilantism or Outrage and Al-Rawi & Rahman: Manufacturing rage

Watch Black Mirror (SE0202) White Bear

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gu1cgFVpNNw
Why Outrage Rules YouTube & The Internet – Wisecrack Edition
https://www.youtube.com/embed/OCsp31lSQ2A
How NOT To Spot Fake News