Digital Media and Culture

Dr. Laura DeNardis Associate Professor of Communication Studies

COURSE OVERVIEW
This course critically examines the central role digital media technologies play in culture and society. Digital media provide the structures in which individual identity is formed, social relations manifest, political discourse occurs, and economic power flows. These technologies are such a pervasive and integral part of society it can be difficult to even distinguish social structure from forms of digital communication. Section I of the course Introduction to the History and Theory of Digital Media introduces historical scholarship about the rise of the digital era and core theoretical concepts explaining linkages between cultural and technological constructs. Section II Identity, Culture, and Community addresses individual identity formation in digital media, community and audience construction online, visual culture and the digitization of race, and issues of gender and gendered identities in new media. Section III The Digital Political Sphere introduces theoretical readings about the networked public sphere, the relationship between media and democracy, and the political effects of various forms of civic media. Section IV Digital Knowledge Economies examines theories of digital knowledge production, the changing nature of media industries, and the culture and politics of online reputation economies. The final section Digital Media, Power, and Social Control examines how the same digital technologies that provide opportunities for cultural and economic liberty also constrain culture and innovation. Topics include restrictions on media freedom online, digital infrastructure and barriers to equality, and privacy and surveillance. You will be encouraged to think critically about each of these conceptual areas, challenging prevailing theories and research about the nature of digital media and formulating your own theoretical beliefs about the reciprocal relationship between digital media and culture.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
Gain exposure to theories of digital media. Examine the historical events that led to the rise and expansion of digital media. Deconstruct the role new digital technologies play in shaping, and being shaped by, culture, new business models, and society. Examine contemporary public policy debates shaping the global digital media system in the 21st century.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
You will succeed in mastering this course if you thoughtfully read all required material prior to each class meeting and are fully engaged in class discussions. You will be expected to submit two brief analysis

pieces and participate in a group project. Mid-term and final exams will be given and will be based on discussion questions posted on Blackboard throughout the semester. Grades will be calculated as follows: Two Brief Analysis Pieces (20%) You will have the opportunity to write two short analysis pieces reacting to a question about a contemporary issue in digital media and culture. Each post should be 500 words and must be submitted by midnight on the day they are due. Reading Quizzes (10%) At various times throughout the semester, unannounced quizzes will be given to assess your comprehension of the readings for that day. Quizzes will focus on the main points of the reading. No make-up quizzes will be possible, so unexcused absences and late arrivals will result in a zero if a quiz falls on that day. Participation in Class Discussions (10%) Please come to class prepared to discuss the weeks reading assignments. Grades will reflect attendance and active participation in every class discussion. You will lose one letter grade in this area for every unexcused class absence. Group Presentation (10%) As part of this course, teams of students will take respective field trips to selected Washington, D.C. exhibits that address the role of digital media processes in society. Each team of students will give inclass group presentations about the topic. Exhibit options will vary by semester but will include options such as: Weapons of Mass Disruption at the Spy Museum News and Press Freedom around the Globe and Chronicling an Attack on America in the 9/11 Gallery at the Newseum Mid-Term Exam (15%); Final Exam (25%) Mid-term and final exams will be based on discussion questions posted throughout the semester. Each exam will include short essay questions and each exam will count toward 25% of final grades. Study guides for the mid-term and final exams will be available on Blackboard. Social Media Content Creation (10%) You will be expected to contribute to the class Twitter hashtag before and during each class. Grading Scale Letter grades will be distributed on the following scale 94-100 90-93 87-89 84-86 80-83 A AB+ B B77-79 74-76 70-73 60-69 0-59 C+ C CD F

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Academic Integrity Standards of academic conduct are set forth in the University's Academic Integrity Code. By registering, you have acknowledged your awareness of the Academic Integrity Code, and are obliged to become familiar with your rights and responsibilities as defined by the Code. Violations of the Academic Integrity Code will not be treated lightly, and disciplinary action will be taken should such violations occur. Please see me if you have any questions about the academic violations described in the Code in general or as they relate to particular requirements for this course.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Dr. Laura DeNardis is a professor of Communication Studies at American University in Washington, DC. Dr. DeNardis is a globally recognized Internet governance scholar whose research addresses Internet policy and technical design issues related to innovation and freedom of expression online. Her books include Opening Standards: The Global Politics of Interoperability (MIT Press 2011); Protocol Politics: The Globalization of Internet Governance (MIT Press 2009); Information Technology in Theory (Thompson 2007 with Pelin Aksoy); and a forthcoming Yale University Press book on Global Internet Governance. She is a Fellow of the Yale Information Society Project and the Vice Chair of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet). DeNardis earned a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech, an MEng from Cornell University, an AB in Engineering Science from Dartmouth College, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from Yale Law School.

Course Schedule and Reading Assignments

SECTION I. INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY AND THEORY OF DIGITAL MEDIA
Historical Foundations of New Media Vannevar Bush, As We May Think, 1945. Marshall McLuhan, The Medium is the Message in Understanding Media, 1964. Lev Manovich, What is New Media in The Language of New Media, MIT Press, 2001, pp. 43-74. Steven Shapin. "What Else Is New?" The New Yorker, May 14, 2007. Available online at http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/05/14/070514crbo_books_shapin?current Page=all. Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York University Press, 2008. (Selected Excerpts)

An Introduction to Theories of Technology and Society Manuel Castells, The Network is the Message and Lessons from the History of the Internet in The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society, Oxford University Press, 2001.

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Langdon Winner, Do Artifacts Have Politics, in The Whale and the Reactor: a Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology, University of Chicago Press, 1986. Paul Edwards, We Defend Every Place: Building the Cold War World in The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America, MIT Press, 1996. Janet Abbate, White Heat and Cold War: The Origins and Meanings of Packet Switching in Inventing the Internet, MIT Press, 1999. Larry Lessig, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity, Penguin, 2004. (Selected Excerpts)

SECTION II. IDENTITY, CULTURE, AND COMMUNITY Digital Identity Formation

Sherry Turkle Who am we? We are moving from modernist calculation toward postmodernist simulation, where the self is a multiple, distributed system, Wired Issue 4.01, 1996. Available online at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/turkle_pr.html. John Perry Barlow, Being in Nothingness Virtual reality and the Pioneers of Cyberspace, 2000. Available online at http://w2.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Perry_Barlow/HTML/being_in_nothingness.html. John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, Identities, in Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, New York: Basic Books, 2008, pp. 17-37. (Reading available on Blackboard)

Digital Media, Community and Culture Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other, Basic Books, 2011. (Selected Excerpts) danah boyd, Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing Community into Being on Social Network Sites, First Monday Vol. 11, Number 12, December 4, 2006. Available online at http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1418/1336. James Carey, A Cultural Approach to Communication, Chapter 1 of Communication as Culture, Routledge, 1992. (Reading available on Blackboard) Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity, Penguin Press, 2004. (Selected Excerpts)

Visual Culture and the Digitization of Race Lisa Nakamura, Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet, University of Minnesota Press, 2007. (Selected Excerpts)

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danah boyd White Flight in Networked Publics? How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook in Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White, Eds, Digital Race Anthology (Eds. Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White) Routledge, 2010. Available online at www.danah.org/papers/2009/WhiteFlightDraft3.pdf.

Digital Media and Gendered Culture Julian Dibbell, A Rape in Cyberspace, The Village Voice, 1993. Donna Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto, in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, Routledge, 1991. Excerpts from Mary L. Gray, Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. (Intersections: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Genders and Sexualities Series). New York University Press, 2009.

SECTION III. THE DIGITAL POLITICAL SPHERE

The Networked Public Sphere Manuel Castells, The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks and Global Governance, in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 616, no. 1, 2008: 78-93. (Reading available on Blackboard) Matthew Hindman, What is the Online Public Sphere Good for? in Joe Turow and Lokman Tsui, eds., The Hyperlinked Society, University of Michigan Press, 2008. Pre-print version available online at: http://www.matthewhindman.com/images/docs/hindman_online_public_sphere_pre.pdf Jurgen Habermas, The Transformation of the Public Spheres Political Function (Read section 20 only) in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, 1962, pp. 181-195. (Reading available on Blackboard)

Media and Democracy Michael Schudson, Click here for democracy: a history and critique of an information-based model of citizenship. Democracy and new media. Eds. Henry Jenkins, David Thorburn and Brad Seawell. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003. (Reading available on Blackboard) Cass Sunstein, The Daily We: Is the Internet Really a Blessing for Democracy, 2001. Available online at http://bostonreview.net/BR26.3/sunstein.php. Karen Tumulty, Obamas Viral Marketing Campaign, in Time Magazine, July 5, 2005. Reading available online at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1640402,00.html.

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Kate Kaye, The State of Online Political Advertising. Available online at http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/ISP/Kate_Kaye.pdf.

Civic Media Ethan Zuckerman, Four Questions about Civic Media, blog posting 6/23/11. Available online at http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2011/06/23/four-questions-about-civic-media/. Malcolm Gladwell, Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted, The New Yorker, October 4, 2010. Available online at http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all Lisa Lynch, "We're Going to Crack the World Open: WikiLeaks and the Future of Investigative Reporting," Journalism Practice, 4: 3, 309-318, July 8, 2010. (Reading available on Blackboard)

SECTION IV: DIGITAL KNOWLEDGE ECONOMIES

Social Production of Knowledge Nicholas Carr, Is Google Making Us Stupid? in The Atlantic, July/August 2008. Available online at http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/ Yochai Benkler, A Moment of Opportunity and Challenge, Introduction to The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yale University Press 2006. Reading available online at http://www.congo-education.net/wealth-of-networks/ch-01.htm. Kreiss, Daniel, Megan Finn, and Fred Turner. The Limits of Peer Production: Some Reminders From Max Weber for the Network Society. New Media & Society, 13(2): 243-259, 2011. Reading available online at http://danielkreiss.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/new-media-society-2010kreiss-1461444810370951.pdf. Chris Anderson (editor of Wired), Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business, Wired Magazine 16.03, February 25, 2008. Available online at http://www.wired.com/print/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free

Digital Media Economies Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture Volume 1 (second edition), Wiley-Blackwell 2009. (Selected Excerpts) Tim Wu, Introduction in The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires, Knopf, 2010. (Selected Excerpts) Pew Research Center Report, Newspapers Face a Challenging Calculus, February 26, 2009. Available online at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1133/decline-print-newspapers-increasedonline-news.

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Mark Deuze, "The web and its journalisms: considering the consequences of different types of news media online." New Media & Society 5.2 (2003): 203-230. Clay Shirky, Everyone is a Media Outlet, Chapter 3 in Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations, The Penguin Press, 2008. (Reading available on Blackboard)

Online Reputation Economies Daniel Solove, The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, Chapters 1 and 6, Yale University Press, 2007. Available online at http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dsolove/Future-of-Reputation/text.htm. Read New Jersey Bridal Shop Refuses to Sell Wedding Gown to Lesbian Bride, Time Magazine, August 21, 2011 (http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/21/new-jersey-bridal-shop-refuses-tosell-wedding-gown-to-lesbian-bride/).

SECTION V. DIGITAL MEDIA, POWER AND SOCIAL CONTROL

Restrictions on Media Freedom Online Yochai Benkler, A Free Irresponsible Press: WikiLeaks and the Battle over the Soul of the Networked Fourth Estate, *Read pages 1-32 only.* Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 2011. Available online at http://benkler.org/Benkler%20Wikileaks%20CRCL%20Working%20Paper%20Feb_8.pdf. (32 pages) OpenNet Initiative Report Internet in the Middle East and North Africa. Available online at http://opennet.net/research/regions/mena.

Digital Infrastructure and Equality Paul DiMaggio, Eszter Hargittai, Coral Celeste and Steven Shafer, Digital Inequality: From Unequal Access to Differentiated Use, *Read pages 30-36 only* in Social Inequality, Kathryn Neckerman, ed. Russell Sage Foundation, 2004. (Reading available on Blackboard) Tim Berners-Lee, Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality, Scientific American Magazine, December 2010. Available online at http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web. Ed Felten, Nuts and Bolts of Network Neutrality. Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy. Reading available on Blackboard. United States National Broadband Plan Executive Summary (2010). Available online at http://thehill.com/images/stories/whitepapers/pdf/nationalbroadbandplansummary.pdf.

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Surveillance and Privacy Michel Foucault, "Panopticism" in Discipline and Punish (1975 New York: Vintage Books 1995): 195-217. Available online at http://foucault.info/documents/disciplineAndPunish/foucault.disciplineAndPunish.panOpticism. html. Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Googlization of Everything and Why We Should Worry, University of California Press, 2011. (Selected Excerpts) danah boyd and Eszter Hargittai (2010). Facebook privacy settings: Who cares? First Monday. 15(8) Reading available online at http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3086/2589

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FOR DISRUPTION OF CLASSES

In the event of an emergency, American University will implement a plan for meeting the needs of all members of the university community. Should the university be required to close for a period of time, we are committed to ensuring that all aspects of our educational programs will be delivered to our students. These may include altering and extending the duration of the traditional term schedule to complete essential instruction in the traditional format and/or use of distance instructional methods. Specific strategies will vary from class to class, depending on the format of the course and the timing of the emergency. Faculty will communicate class-specific information to students via AU e-mail and Blackboard, while students must inform their faculty immediately of any absence. Students are responsible for checking their AU e-mail regularly and keeping themselves informed of emergencies. In the event of an emergency, students should refer to the AU Student Portal, the AU Web site (www. prepared. american.edu) and the AU information line at (202) 885-1100 for general university-wide information, as well as contact their faculty and/or respective deans office for course and school/ college-specific information.

DISABILITY SUPPORT
If you experience difficulty in this course for any reason, please dont hesitate to consult with me. In addition to the resources of the department, a wide range of services is available to support you in your efforts to meet the course requirements. Academic Support Center (x3360, MGC 243) offers study skills workshops, individual instruction, tutor referrals, and services for students with learning disabilities. Writing support is available in the ASC Writing Lab or in the Writing Center, Battelle 228. Counseling Center (x3500, MGC 214) offers counseling and consultations regarding personal concerns, self-help information, and connections to off-campus mental health resources. Disability Support Services (x3315, MGC 206) offers technical and practical support and assistance with accommodations for students with physical, medical, or psychological disabilities. If you qualify for

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accommodations because of a disability, please notify me in a timely manner with a letter from the Academic Support Center or Disability Support Services so that we can make arrangements to address your needs.

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