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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY
COURSE CODE: "CMS 370"
COURSE NAME: "Digital Disruption: Technological Change and Digital Platforms"
SEMESTER & YEAR:
Fall 2023
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SYLLABUS
INSTRUCTOR:
Anthony Stagliano
EMAIL: [email protected]
HOURS:
TTH 11:30 AM 12:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS:
45
CREDITS:
3
PREREQUISITES:
Prerequisite: Junior Standing; recommended COM 311
OFFICE HOURS:
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COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The course will offer a short historical overview of the relationships between media change and technological disruption, culminating with the intensification of digital media, networking technologies and digital platforms. The course will explore the impact and changes led by digital disruption on social relationships, business models, entrepreneurial practices and the labor condition, communication and culture, as well as on political processes and engagement. The core question investigated throughout the course is how the disruptive logic of digitalization generates anxieties and hopes that condition networked media platforms.
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SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
This course will provide an in-depth discussion of the challenging and innovatory potential of digitalization, the fears and promises, uncertainties and excitements it generates, particularly centering the attention on digital platformism: a technical and organizational paradigm that rules and mediates the whole spectrum of contemporary societal life. The course connects the impact of digital change to a number of key current concerns, including media transformation, labor, digital money, algorithmic ruling, open knowledge and education, populism and conspiracy culture, networked cooperativism, and deliberative politics. Throughout the course, students will work with and critically address through a series of media experiments relevant examples, such as Amazon, Uber, AirB&B and Netflix.
The course is organized around short lectures, group discussions, engagement with various media materials, and practice-led individual and group research.
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LEARNING OUTCOMES:
By the end of
the course students will be able to:
1. Understand
the disruptive capacities of digital technologies and the paradigmatic changes
led by digitization.
2. Comprehend
the impact of digitization, and the possibilities opened by it, on the social,
economic, cultural and political spheres.
3. Recognize
and assess the processes of innovation led by digital media technologies in
order to advance individual and collective projects, producing critically
reflexive and impacting media outputs.
4. Develop
autonomous and team working skills to address the main ideas of the course into
daily practices and individual interests.
5. Critically
evaluate the impact of digital platforms.
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TEXTBOOK:
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REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
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GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
| Assignment | Guidelines | Weight |
| Attendance and Participation | Class participation consists of your contribution to class discussions, learning activities. | 15% |
| Digital Portfolio | Students are required to produce a digital media portfolio that consists of 3 media outputs. These media outputs will be part of the results of the 3 media experiments that will be carried out throughout the course. The first two media experiments are due on week 7 and will be presented and graded as midterm. The last one is due and will be presented on week 14. | 35% |
| (Midterm) | (Media Experiment 1) | (10%) |
| (Midterm) | (Media Experiment 2) | (10%) |
| (Midterm) | Presentation of results and summary of experiments 1 and 2 | (5%) |
| | (Media experiment 3) | (10%) |
| Research Papers | Students are required to write short individual research papers (500-700 words each) that reflect the critical engagement of the 3 Media Experiments to the themes of the course, and an individual paper around 2000 words, following their own engagement in the course. Concepts, concerns and contexts introduced in the course must be used to connect, develop and summarize the ideas that underpin the various media experiments. 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 digital media output. | 50% |
| (Midterm) | Research paper related to Experiment 1 | (5%) |
| (Midterm) | Research paper related to Experiment 2 | (5%) |
| | Research paper related to Experiment 3 | (5%) |
| | Final Research Paper | (30%) |
| (Final) | Presentation of final results and research paper | (5%) |
-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:
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.
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ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic
dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred.
In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment,
may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of
academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student
who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from
the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation
to the President, who will make the final decision.
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STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap.
Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning
of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
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SCHEDULE
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The course is structured around readings, short lectures, related in-class activities, group-work, discussions, and the occasional screening of video excerpts.
The following schedule provides a general overview of the topics and themes that we will cover throughout the course. Specific details and additional readings will be revealed/assigned on a weekly basis.
Please note that a Moodle page will be used as support to share updates and news, to collect assignments, to archive readings and other course materials.
Please note that your papers may be submitted to Turnitin (plagiarism detection software).
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Week 1: Introduction and course overview
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Parkinson, H. J. (2017) ‘Sometimes you don’t feel human’ – how the gig economy chews up and spits out millennials’ [on line] The Guardian.
The Economist (2018) ‘Worries about the rise of the gig economy are mostly overblown’ [on line], Economist.com.
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Week 2: A short (pre) history of media change I. From the telegraph to VHS and cassette tapes: transmission, recording and broadcast disruption
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Brevini, B. and Swiatek, L. (2021) Amazon. Understanding a Global Communication Giant. NewYork and London: Routledge (selected excerpts).
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Week 3: A short history of media change II. Disruptive intensification: niche consumption, platform mobility and p2p
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Lobato, R. (2019) Netflix Nation. The Geography of Digital Distribution. New Yoirk: New York University Press (selected excerpts).
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Case focus: Netflix
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Week 4: The dynamics of digital disruption: new chances, new fears
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Christensen, C. M. (1997) The Innovator's Dilemma. When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing (selected excerpts).
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Case focus: Uber
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Week 5: The (digital) platform: technological complexity, over-organisation and hyper-mediation
Bratton, B. (2015) The Stack. On Software and Sovereignty. Cambridge: MA – London: MIT Press (selected excerpts).
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Case focus: AirB&B
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Week 6: Algorithmically-driving music taste: platforms and recommendation systems
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Seaver, Nick, Computing Taste, 2022 (excerpts).
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Case focus: Spotify
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Week 7: Midterm exam and review of individual projects
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Experiments 1 and 2 and related papers are due
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Presentations
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Week 8: Algorithms and automation: logistics, platform labour and crowdsourcing
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Munn, L. (2022) Automation is a myth. Stanford: Stanford University Press (selected excerpts).
https://stablediffusionlitigation.com/
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Case focus: Stable Diffusion/Midjourney
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Week 9: Digital money: crypto-currencies, decentralisation, and the disruption of monetary exchange
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Day, M. S. (2018) Bits to Bitcoin. How our digital stuff works. Cambridge, London: MIT Press (selected excerpts).
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Case focus: Bitcoin
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Week 10: Disrupting (media) education: open knowledge and education factories
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Hall, G. (2016) The Uberfication of the University. Minnesota, USA: University of Minnesota Press (selected excerpts).
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Case focus: Shadow libraries
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Week 11: Alter-platformism: commonisation, platform cooperativism and the creation of alternative digital infrastructures
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Scholz, T. and Schneider, N. (ed.) (2016) Ours to hack and to own. The rise of platform cooperativism, a new vision for the future of work and a fairer internet. New York, London: OR Books (selected excerpts).
Muldoon, J. (2022) Platform Socialism How to Reclaim our Digital Future from Big Tech. London: Pluto Press (selected excerpts).
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Case focus: Commonspoly
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Week 12: The (re) surfacing of (digital) populism: leaks, fake news and conspiracy theories
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McIntyre, L. (2018) Post-Truth. Cambridge: MA, London: MIT Press.
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Case focus: QAnon
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Week 13: New forms of deliberative politics: digitalization and civic engagement
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Ramos, J. M (2015) Liquid Democracy and the Futures of Governance, in Winter, J., and Ono, R. (eds.) The Future Internet: Alternative Visions, Springer; pp. 173-191.
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Case focus: Loomio
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Week 14
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Recap
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Finals
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Presentation of Experiment 3
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