GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
Assignment | Guidelines | Weight |
Attendance and Participation | Class participation consists of your contribution to class discussions and other activities. Students are required to come to class having completed the assigned readings. For attendance policy see below. | 15% |
Group Project | Students are required to choose a contemporary example of a digital media phenomenon to serve as the principal focus of research and assignment work throughout the course. Students will work in groups (3-4), and topics will be selected from a list. The group project consists as well in the production and development of a digital media ‘piece’ (wiki, blog, clip, graphic, web page, data map, piece of code, etc.) concerning with the phenomenon in question and aligning with the individual skills of the students. | 25% |
Midterm Presentation | In week 7, groups will present to peers their midterm reflections and findings on the project as well as the development of their digital media ‘piece’. Short presentation will be followed by feedback and group discussion. These will assist you in the progress of your ideas. | 25% |
Final Research Paper | Students are required to write an individual research paper between 3500-5000 words, following their own engagement in the group research. Concepts, concerns and contexts introduced in the module must be used in analyzing the chosen phenomenon. Papers will be graded according to their clarity, originality, style, adherence to the course topics, coherence of the argument, attention to diversity of sources, correct formatting of citations, ability to develop from feedback and alignment with the group project and its digital media output. | 35% |
-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course. BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments. CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings. DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail. FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY
Please note that frequent absences automatically lower your participation grade.
Also please consider that you will lose one half-letter grade for any absence over 4 (e.g. 5 absences, half letter grade lost). Anything above 8 absences will result in failing the course.
If you have a serious health problem, which causes you to miss more classes than this class allows, you can ask the Dean's Office to consider whether you may warrant a exemption from this policy.
If unexcused, students more than 10 minutes late are marked as absent. Late arrival (less than 10 minutes) is marked as such, and 3 late arrivals are counted as one absence.
Class procedure: Use of cell phones affects your participation grade and is strictly forbidden during class. Please make sure that your cell phone is turned off (and not just muted) when class starts.
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SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MEDIA CULTURES
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Week 1 - Introduction and Course Overview: Digital | Media | Culture
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1.1 What are digital media? What is culture? Can we speak of a distinctive ‘digital culture’?
Reading:
Gere, C. (2008) ‘What is digital culture?’, Introduction, Digital Culture, London: Reaktion Books; pp. 11-20.
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1.2 Projects overview and selection
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Week 2 Features: Defining Concepts of Digital Media
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2.1 Digital media: defining concepts I
Reading:
Lister, M., Dovey, J., Giddings, S., Grant, I., and Kelly, K. (2009) ‘1.2 The characteristics of new media: some defining concepts’, New Media. A Critical Introduction. 2nd edition. London and New York: Routledge; pp.13-44.
Suggested Reading:
Gere, C. (2008) ‘The Beginnings of Digital Culture’, Chapter 1, Digital Culture, London: Reaktion Books; pp. 21-50.
Case study and discussion: Amazon go shop
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2.2 Digital media: defining concepts II
Reading:
Winthrop-Young, G. (2010) ‘Hardware/Software/Wetware’, Chapter 13, in Mitchell, W. J. T. and Hansen, M. B. N. (eds.) Critical Terms for Media Studies, Chicago – London: The University of Chicago Press; pp. 186-198.
Suggested Reading:
Kittler, F. (2008) ‘Code (or, How You Can Write Something Differently)’, in Fuller, M. (eds.) Software Studies. A Lexicon, Cambridge: MA – Lodon: MIT Press; pp. 40-47.
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Week 3 How to: Theorizing and studying digital media cultures
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3.1 The ‘practice’ of theory: the critical study of digital media
Reading:
Mills B., and Barlow D. M. (2009) ‘What is Theory’, Chapter 2, Reading Media Theory: Thinkers, Approaches and Contexts, London: Routledge; pp. 7-21.
Suggested Reading:
Merrin, W. (2009) ‘Media Studies 2.0: upgrading and open-sourcing the discipline’, Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture, 1 (1), pp. 17-34.
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3.2 Humanities and the digital, or experimenting media research in the 21st century
Reading:
Law, J. (2004) ‘After method: an introduction’, Chapter 1, After Method. Mess in social science research, London – New York: Routledge; pp.1-15.
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SECTION 2: HISTORIES OF THE DIGITAL
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Week 4 Histories of Internetworked Media
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4.1 Information technologies and internet histories
Reading:
Castells, M. (1996) ‘The Information Technology Revolution’, Chapter 2, The Rise of the Network Society (Second Edition, 2010), Malden: MA – Oxford: Blackwell; pp. 28-69.
Suggested Reading:
Leiner, B. M., et. al (2012) ‘A Brief History of the Internet’, Internet Society.
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4.2 Networking the globe
Reading:
Wark, M. (2012) ‘Neither Here Nor There’, Chapter 3, Telesthesia. Communication, Culture and Class. Cambridge – Malden: MA: Polity Press; pp. 25-38.
Suggested Reading:
Curran, J. (2012) ‘Rethinking internet history’, Chapter 2, in Curran, J., Fenton, N. and Freedman, D. (eds.) Misunderstanding the Internet, London – New York: Routledge; pp.34-65.
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Week 5 Network, Art, Countercultures
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5.1 Hacker culture and its aesthetics
Reading:
Coleman, G. (2013) ‘Introduction: A Tale of Two Worlds’, in Coding Freedom, Princeton: Princeton University Press; pp. 1-22
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5.2 Free software: openness in digital cultures
Reading:
Stallman, R. (2010) Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman, 2nd edition. Boston: Free Software Foundation; pp. 3-23, 27-31.
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Week 6 Temporality, Process and Mediation
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6.1 Beyond (new) media
Reading:
Kember, S. and Zylinska, J. (2012) ‘Catastrophe “Live”’, Chapter 2, Life after New Media Mediation as a Vital Process, Cambridge: MA – London: MIT Press; pp. 29-69.
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6.2 Vital media
Reading:
Jones, G. (2011) ‘The Universe of Things’, The Universe of Things, Seattle: Aqueduct Press; pp. 48-61.
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Week 7 Group Presentations
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SECTION 3: MATERIALITIES OF THE DIGITAL
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Week 8 Media Matter
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8.1 Media Materialities
Readings:
Munster, A. (2014) ‘Materiality’, in Ryan, M., Emerson, L., and Robertson, B. J. (eds.) The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press; pp. 327-330.
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8.2 Geo Media
Reading:
Bennett, J. (2010) ‘The Force of Things’, Chapter 1, in Bennett, J. Vibrant Matter: a political ecology of things, Durham and London: Duke University Press; pp. 1-19.
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Week 9 Media Ecologies
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9.1 Network Ecologies
Reading:
Fuller, M. (2005) ‘Introduction: Media Ecologies’, Media Ecologies. Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture, Cambridge: MA – London: MIT Press; pp. 1-12.
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9.2 Medianatures & E-waste
Reading:
Miller, T. (2015) ‘The Art of Waste: Contemporary Culture and Unsustainable Energy Use’ in Parks, L. and Starosielski, N. (eds.) Signal Traffic. Critical Studies of Media Infrastructures. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press; pp. 137-156.
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Week 10 Mediated Bodies
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10.1 Cyborgs, digital bodies and posthumanities
Reading:
Haraway, D. (1991) ‘A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century’, Chapter 8, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. The Reinvention of Nature, New York: Routledge; pp.149-181.
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10.2 Biomediations
Reading:
Miller, V. (2011) ‘The Body and Information Technology’, Chapter 9, Understanding Digital Culture, London – Thousand Oaks – New Delhi – Singapore: Sage; pp. 207-223.
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SECTION 4: POLITICS OF THE DIGITAL
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Week 11 Digital Media and Power(s)
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11.1 The logic of control
Readings:
Deleuze, G. (1995) ‘Postscript on Control Societies’, Negotiations. New York: Columbia University Press; pp.177-182.
Burroughs, W. (1975) [2013] ‘The Limits of Control’, Schizo-Culture: The Book, South Pasadena: Semiotext(e); pp.38-42
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11.2 Algorithmic Cultures
Reading:
Beer, D. (2009) ‘Power through the algorithm? Participatory web cultures and the technological unconscious’, New Media & Society, 11(6), pp. 985-1002.
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Week 12 Digital Labor and the Attention Economy
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12.1 Free work, internetworked labor
Reading:
Berardi, F. (2009) ‘The Soul at Work’, Chapter 2, The Soul at Work. From Alientaion to Autonomy, Los Angeles: Semiotext(e); pp. 74-105.
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12.2 New Economy and Digital Participation
Readings:
Jenkins, H. (2006) ‘Introduction’, in Convergence Culture. New York and London: New York University Press; pp. 1-24.
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Week 13 Digital Resistances
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13.1 Hacktivism and media politics
Reading:
Coleman, G. (2013) ‘Anonymous and the Politics of Leaking’, in Brevini, B., Hintz, A., and McCurdy, P. (eds.) Beyond WikiLeaks, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan; pp. 209-228.
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13.2 Digital media and network resistances
Reading:
Galloway, A. R. and Thacker, E. (2007) Selected extracts from ‘Nodes’, Part I, The Exploit. A Theory of Networks, Minneapolis – London: University of Minnesota Press.
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Week 14 Recap of Main Concepts and Final Group Projects Overview
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