Course Description:

This course examines the ways in which new media technologies change how we interact with each other and the world. We explore the impact of new media technologies on the ways that we think, what we understand as truth, how we communicate, and how we come to understand ourselves and others. Although we focus on the internet’s effects, we will also discuss other forms of new communication technologies including cell phones and digital media, as well as “old” media such as television and film. We will discuss important questions about truth, identity, and community that new media technologies raise. The course includes a hands-on component in which students will participate in a series of lab experiences and then write about them. Students will also build their own websites for the course.

Comments:

The course was structured around five basic modules or sections, with each module having a lab and paper assignment based on the issues and readings from each section. I’ve listed the sections, included some of the lab assignments, and then listed the available readings. Since the last time I’ve taught this class, the web 2.0 has emerged. Obviously the labs and readings would change if I get to teach this class again. Also, the students were required to build a webpage, blog, or online journal for the class. Lab 4 related to that assignment.

Sections:

1. Introduction to the concepts and issues

Lab 1 and paper–The Matrix

2. Internet as Hyperreal

Lab 2 and paper–Amazon.com

3. Power/Structure/Struggle

Lab 3 and paper–The Audobon Aquarium and IMAX

4. Community

5. Self/Identity

Lab 4 and paper–Blogs, Journals, Virtual Communities

(Also, Makeup Lab — McDonaldization)

Readings:

All the readings I assigned were from the web. There was no textbook. Many of the readings are no longer available; some have been published and therefore taken offline, some have just disappeared. Below are the different readings I’ve used.

Jackson, Tim. “A Prisoner of Hope in Cyberspace.” Bad Subjects 37 (1998)

Jacobson, David. ” On Theorizing Presence.” Journal of Virtual Environments 6.1 (2002).

Barbatsis, Gretchen and Kenneth Hansen, “The Performance of Cyberspace: An Exploration into Computer Mediated Reality.” Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 5.1 (1999).

Lombard, Matthew and Theresa Ditton. “At the Heart of it All: The Concept of Presence.” Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 3.2 ( 1997).

Chesher, Chris. “Colonizing Virtual Reality, Construction of the Discourse of Virtual Reality, 1984_1992.” Cultronix 1.1 (1994).

Poster, Mark. Postmodern Virtualities (Chapter 2 in The Second Media Age).

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.

Worksheet and Reading Questions on Benjamin

Kellner, Douglas. Baudrillard: A New McLuhan? (Iilluminations website).

Worksheet on Baudrillard: A New McLuhan

Kellner, Douglas and Steven Best. Debord and the Postmodern Turn: New Stages of the Spectacle (Illuminations website).

Sorenssen, Bjorn. Let your Finger Do the Walking: The Space/Place Metaphor in Online Computer Communication.

Mitra, Ananda and Rae Lynn Schwartz. ” From Cyber Space to Cybernetic Space: Rethinking the Relationship between Real and Virtual Spaces.” Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 7.1 (2001).

Fuller, Mary and Henry Jenkins. Nintendo® and New World Travel Writing: A Dialogue. (From Cybersociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, ed. Steven G. Jones).

Friedman, Ted. Making Sense Of Software. (1993).

Stallabras, Julian. “Just Gaming: Allegory and Economy in Computer Games.” (Version of article in New Left Review 1993.)

Wagner, James Au. “Weapons of Mass Distraction.” Salon.

Boyle, James. Foucault In Cyberspace: Surveillance, Sovereignty, and Hard Wired Censors. (1997).

Bruns, Axel. “The Fiction of Copyright: Towards a Consensual Use of Intellectual Property.” M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.1 (1999).

Philo, Simon. Getting Dumber and Dumber: MTV’s Global Footprint.

Jones, Steve. Computer_Mediated Communication and Community: Introduction. Computer Mediated Communication Magazine 2.3 (1995).

Fernback, Jan and Brad Thompson. Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure? (1995).

Kollock, Peter and Marc Smith. Communities in Cyberspace. (1999).

Dahlberg, Lincoln. “Computer Mediated Communication and the Public Sphere.” Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 7.1 (2001).

Chandler, Daniel. Personal Home Pages and the Construction of Identities on the Web. (MCS website).

Rubio, Steve. “Home Page.” Bad Subjects 24 (1996).

Aycock, Alan. ” Technologies of the Self: Foucault and Internet Discourse.” Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 1.2 (1995).

Firth, Simon. “Baring your Soul on the Web.” Salon (1998).

Tal, Kali. “Duppies in the Machine, or, “Anybody know where I can buy a copy of the UPNORTH OUTWEST GEECHEE JIBARA QUIK MAGIC TRANCE MANUAL FOR TECHNOLOGICALLY STRESSED THIRD WORLD PEOPLE?.” (1998).

Smelik, Anneke. “The Carousel of Genders.” (1996).

Spittle, Steve. “Is Anybody Out There? Gender, Subjectivity and Identity in Cyberspace.” MCS website. (1997).