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New Media and Society
COMM/IS 3200 @ Cornell University
Online Summer Session, June 22-August 4, 2015
Instructor Caroline Jack — email csj44@cornell.edu
Office hours GChat or Skype (CarolineSJack) 1-3 pm Wednesdays or by appointment
Course HQ at http://summer.blackboard.cornell.edu/
As individuals in a Western, industrialized society, we are immersed in a complex and
pervasive media culture. It seems self-evident that new media has changed how we live. What
we see, hear and read is in some ways the product of our society and its particular political,
economic, material, and cultural contours. Yet, our encounters with and uses of digital
information technologies and other media forms also shape our understandings of our society,
our world, and ourselves. What we get—from our media, and from the political, social and
economic arrangements we enact through media—may be quite different from what we hoped
or bargained for.
As new media have become an increasingly common part of our daily lives, new forms of
entertainment and interaction have emerged, along with new political and economic models
and concerns. This course will interrogate how the social, political, and cultural landscapes are
affected by digital media and information technologies.
We will develop critical resources to better understand the history of these new technologies
and emerging communicative forms, the economics and politics behind them, and the
sociocultural shifts from which they have emerged and that they have engendered. These
tools will help us discard our commonplace assumptions about digital media, information
technologies, and the contexts in which they are embedded, to ask deeper questions about
their impact on society.
Target outcomes for this course
Students will:
 Learn analytical concepts for understanding the complex information society around
them.
 Understand how cultural, political, and economic environments are changing (and how
they are remaining the same) with the emergence of new media and digital
technologies.
 Encounter, understand, and speak to contemporary controversies around new media.
 Develop an informed voice on these issues through short writing assignments.
Required Materials
The materials for the course, including lectures and class readings, will be available via
Blackboard or accessible online via links in the syllabus. Most of the readings for class are
available online; journal articles may be obtained via the Cornell Library website
(www.library.cornell.edu; hit the “E-Journal Titles” tab under the search box, then enter the
journal title), and readings posted to Blackboard are marked [Bb]. You are responsible for
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obtaining journal articles from the library website using your NetID; we will review article
retrieval in class.
You will need a computer, a reliable internet connection, and a browser--FireFox or Safari-to access Blackboard (functionality in Chrome is limited).
Course Format
Lectures: Lecture videos will be posted online to Blackboard.
Readings and Quizzes: The course readings are listed by their due date. For reading
assignments due Monday-Thursday, there will be a short online quiz (2 to 4 multiple choice
questions). Reading quizzes must be completed by the reading’s due date for credit. There
are twenty-four quizzes in total; your four lowest quiz scores will not count toward your
grade. All quizzes are open-book, open-note.
Short Papers: Students will write five short (approx. 500 words) papers over the duration of
the course, each in response to a written prompt. Papers must be in APA format. Short
papers are due each Friday, at 7:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time. All writing assignments are
open-book, open-note. You will submit each in a Word document via Turnitin on
Blackboard. Your lowest short paper score will not count toward your grade. More
detailed instructions will be given in class.
Final Exam: The final exam will follow the same format as the short papers; you will be
provided with several essay question prompts from which you will choose three to answer.
The final exam is open-book, open-note. You will submit it in a Word document via
Turnitin on Blackboard. More detailed instructions will be given in class. There is no
midterm for this course.
Tech Support for Blackboard: contact acadtech@cornell.edu or (607) 255-9760
Grading
[how many?]
[% of final grade]
[point value]
Quizzes
20
x
2
=
40/100
Short Papers
4
x
7
=
28/100
Final Exam
1
x
32
=
32/100
100/100
Expectations
 You will adhere to the Cornell Code of Academic Integrity. A copy is available here:
http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/aic.cfm. In short, give others credit (in APA citation format)
when you use their ideas or words, and don’t turn in someone else’s work under your
name. If you’re not sure, ask!
 You will complete your individual work on your own. “Open book” does not mean
“collaborative.”
 You will complete your work on time. Due to the compressed nature of the class, late
quizzes and short papers will not be accepted for credit. I will accept final exams one
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day late in exchange for a 10% reduction in the final exam grade. Requests for
extensions on the final exam will only be granted in true emergencies; official
documentation of illness or other extenuating circumstances must be submitted with
your request.
Guidelines for Writing Critical Commentary
One of the aims of this course is to develop a voice on the issues we will encounter in
class (both in our readings and in conversation with one another). No matter how strongly we
disagree with readings or one another, we will engage in thoughtful, respectful critique. Daniel
Dennett’s rules for criticism, reproduced below with some modifications for classroom use
(from Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, 2014, W. W. Norton and Co.), will be our
model for critiquing ideas.
How to compose a successful critical commentary:
1. You should attempt to re-express the idea or position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that its
author might say, ‘Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.’
2. You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or
widespread agreement).
3. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or critique.
Rebuttal strategies can include pointing out cases or examples that disprove the
position you are critiquing, contending that the idea or position you are
critiquing is based on a faulty or questionable assumption, pointing out that the
idea or position you are critiquing failed to address some element of the issue at
hand, describing the implications or logical extensions of an idea or position’s
reasoning, identifying logical fallacies, etc.
A Note about the Content of Class Readings
Some of the readings for this class, especially in the sections about trolling and
harassment, contain graphic language referring to violence, explicit sexuality and sexual
assault. I have marked these readings [NSFW].
Students with Disabilities
It is Cornell policy to provide reasonable accommodations to students who have a documented
disability (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, or systemic) that may affect their
ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. Students with
disabilities are encouraged to contact Student Disability Services and their instructors for a
confidential discussion of their individual need for academic accommodations. Student
Disability Services is located in 420 CCC. Staff can be reached by calling 607.254.4545.
Class Schedule
Monday June 22
Lecture: Introduction//Orientation
Reading due today: Syllabus
Online Activity: Quiz 1 (over the content of the syllabus). Introduce yourself in the Discussion
Section forum for extra credit (1 point).
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Tuesday June 23
Lecture: History//A Brief Survey of Ideas about New Media
Online Activity: Quiz 2
Reading due today:

Curran, J. (2012). Reinterpreting the Internet. In Curran, J., Fenton, N., and Freedman, D., Eds.
Misunderstanding the Internet. New York: Routledge. Pp. 3-33.
http://soniapsebastiao.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/3/9/20393123/impresso_ebook__gcc_20132014_curran_f
enton_freedman-misunderstanding_the_internet-routledge_2012.pdf
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Streeter, T. (2014, September 29). Internet [draft] [digitalkeywords]. Culture Digitally
http://culturedigitally.org/2014/09/internet-draft-digitalkeywords/
 Abbate, J. (1999). Popularizing the Internet. In Inventing the Internet. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 181220.
Wednesday June 24
Lecture: History//The Many Origins of the Internet
Online Activity: Quiz 3
Reading due today:
 Curran, J. (2012). Rethinking Internet History. In Curran, J., Fenton, N., and Freedman, D., Eds.
Misunderstanding the Internet. New York: Routledge. Pp. 34-66.
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Gordon Crovitz, Wall Street Journal, “Who Really Invented the Internet?” (2012)
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444464304577539063008406518
 Farhad Manjoo, Slate “Obama Was Right: The Government Invented the Internet” (2012)
http://slate.me/1u91bj3
 Harry McCracken, Time “How Government Did (and Didn’t) Invent the Internet” (2012)
http://techland.time.com/2012/07/25/how-government-did-and-didnt-invent-the-internet/
 Steven Johnson, NY Times “The Internet? We Built That” (2012) http://nyti.ms/1Ehzjtn
 Campbell-Kelly, M., Aspray, W., Ensmenger, N., and Yost, J. R. (2014). The Internet. In Campbell-Kelly et
al., Computer [third ed.], Boulder: Westview Press. 275-306. [Bb]
Thursday June 25
Lecture: History//The Early Web
We’ll review the requirements for the writing assignment due tomorrow.
Online Activity: Quiz 4
Readings due today:

Stevenson, M. (2014). Rethinking the participatory web: A history of HotWired’s ‘new publishing
paradigm,’ 1994–1997. New Media & Society 16, 1-16.
 Manjoo, F. (2009, February 4). Jurassic Web. Slate. http://slate.me/1EhzJjv
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Barlow, J. P. (1996, February 8). A Declaration of Independence for Cyberspace.
https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html
Friday June 26
Lecture: History//Case: Online Advertising
Online Activity: none.
Short Paper #1 Due
Readings due today:
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

Crain, M. (2014). “Financial markets and online advertising: reevaluating
the dotcom investment bubble” Information, Communication & Society, 17(3): 371-384.
Zuckerman, E (2014, August 14). The Internet's Original Sin. The Atlantic. http://theatln.tc/1EhBNbh
Monday June 29
Lecture: The Web We Have//The Cost of Free
Online Activity: Quiz 5
Reading due today:

Anderson, C. (2008, February 25). Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business. Wired.
http://wrd.cm/1EhEWrM
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Halberman, C. (2014, December 7). Grappling With the ‘Culture of Free’ in
Napster’s Aftermath. New York Times. http://nyti.ms/15nlIoT
 McCourt, T. and Burkart, P. (2003). When creators, corporations and consumers collide: Napster and the
development of on-line music distribution. Media Culture & Society 25, 333-350.
Tuesday June 30
Lecture: The Web We Have//Web 2.0 and the Rise of Platforms
Online Activity: Quiz 6
Reading due today:
 Gillespie, T. (2010). The Politics of Platforms. New Media & Society 12: 347-364.
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Van Dijck, J. (2013). Engineering Sociality in a Culture of Connectivity. In The Culture of Connectivity: A
Critical History of Social Media. New York: Oxford University Press. 3-23.
Wednesday July 1
Lecture: The Web We Have//Sociotechnical Systems
Online Activity: Quiz 7
Reading due today:

Niederer, S., and van Dijck, J. (2010). Wisdom of the Crowd or Technicity of Content? Wikipedia as a
Sociotechnical System. New Media & Society 12:1368-1387.
http://www.govcom.org/publications/full_list/niederer_vandijck_technicity.pdf
Optional Supplemental Reading/Viewing:
 Bucher, T. (2014). About A Bot: Hoax, Fake, Performance Art. M/C Journal 17(3). http://journal.mediaculture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/814
 Mars, R. (2014, December 16). Octothorpe. 99% Invisible.
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/octothorpe/
Thursday July 2
Lecture: The Web We Have//Search and the Turn to Big Data
We’ll review the requirements for the writing assignment due tomorrow.
Online Activity: Quiz 8
Reading due today:

Stalder, F., & Mayer, C. (2009, February 10). The Second Index: Search Engines, Personalization and
Surveillance. notes & nodes. http://felix.openflows.com/node/113
Optional Supplemental Reading:
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
Zimmer, M. (2007, May 16). Google Universal Search: Half of the Perfect Search Engine.
Michaelzimmer.org. http://www.michaelzimmer.org/2007/05/16/google-universal-search-half-of-theperfect-search-engine/
Friday July 3
Lecture: The Web We Have//Case: Facebook Emotional Contagion Study
Online Activity: none.
Short Paper #2 Due
Readings due today:

Kramer, A. D. I., Guillory, J. E., and Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale
Emotional Contagion Through Social Networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America, 111(24), pp. 8788-8790.
 Gillespie, T. (2014). “Facebook’s algorithm — why our assumptions are wrong, and our concerns are
right.” Culture Digitally, http://culturedigitally.org/2014/07/facebooks-algorithm-why-our-assumptionsare-wrong-and-our-concerns-are-right/
 Watts, D. J. (2014, July 7). Stop complaining about the Facebook Study. It’s a golden age for research. The
Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/07/facebook-study-science-experimentresearch
Optional Supplemental Reading
 Gray, M. (2014). “When Science, Customer Service, and Human Subjects Research Collide: Now What?”
Culture Digitally, http://culturedigitally.org/2014/07/when-science-customer-service-and-humansubjects-research-collide-now-what/
Monday July 6
Lecture: Privacy//Big Data and Corporate Surveillance
Online Activity: Quiz 9
Reading due today:
 Carlson, M. (2006). Tapping into TiVo. New Media and Society 8:1, 97-115.
Optional Supplemental Readings:
 Angwin, J. (2014). “Who Is Watching You?” Medium (2014) https://medium.com/backchannel/who-iswatching-you-7296eeb036c1
 Oremus, W. (2014). “There Are Two Kinds of Online Privacy. Facebook Only Likes to Talk About One.”
Slate.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/11/13/facebook_privacy_basics_page_what_it_won_t_tel
l_you_about_personal_data.html
Tuesday July 7
Lecture: Privacy//The Politics of Data
Online Activity: Quiz 10
Readings due today:

Tufekci, Z. (2014). Engineering the Public: Big Data, Surveillance and computational politics. First
Monday 19(7). http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4901/4097
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Mundie, C. (2014, March/April). “Privacy Pragmatism: Focus on Data Use, Not Data Collection.” Foreign
Affairs. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/140741/craig-mundie/privacy-pragmatism
 Hoofnagle, C. J. (2014, Sept. 2). The Potemkinism of Privacy Pragmatism. Slate.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/09/data_use_regulation_the_libertarian_p
ush_behind_a_new_take_on_privacy.html
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Wednesday July 8
Lecture: Privacy//Big Data and State Surveillance I
Online Activity: Quiz 11
Reading Due Today:

Lightfoot, G., and Wisniewski, T. P. (2014). Information asymmetry and power in a surveillance society.
Information and Organization 24:4.
Optional Supplemental Readings and viewings:
 CitizenFour. Film available via iTunes and various other download services.
 Greenwald, G. (2013, June 7). NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others. The
Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data
 Greenwald, G., McKaskill, E., and Poitras, L. (2013, June 11). Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind
the NSA surveillance revelations. The Guardian,
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance
Thursday July 9
Lecture: Privacy//Big Data and State Surveillance II
We’ll review the requirements for the writing assignment due tomorrow.
Online Activity: Quiz 12
Reading due today:


Andrejevic, M. (2013). Intelligence Glut: Policing, Security, and Predictive Analytics. In Infoglut. New
York: Routledge. 19-41. [Bb]
Carroll, R. (2013, June 14). Welcome to Utah, the NSA's desert home for eavesdropping on America. The
Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/14/nsa-utah-data-facility
Friday July 10
Lecture: Privacy// Cases in Data Practice
Online Activity: none.
Short Paper #3 Due
Readings due today:

Scola, N., and Peterson, A. (2014, November 18). Data is Uber’s business. But protecting it may be its
biggest weakness. Washington Post. http://wapo.st/1wlHTRI
 Rushe, D., and Lewis, P. (2014, October 16). How the 'safest place on the
internet' tracks its users. The Guardian. http://bit.ly/1wlIWkR
Optional Supplemental Readings:
 Hu, E. (2014, October 14). Snapchat And Dropbox Breaches Are Really Third-Party-App Breaches. All
Tech Considered. http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/10/14/356109558/snapchat-anddropbox-breaches-are-really-third-party-app-breaches
Monday July 13
Lecture: Infrastructure//A Series of Tubes
Online Activity: Quiz 13
Reading due today:

Blum, A. (2012). Prologue and Cities of Light, in Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet (2012). New
York: Harper Collins. 1-10; 157-190. [Bb]
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 McCracken, H. (2011, November 19). Inside Facebook’s Amazing Oregon Data Center. Technologizer.
http://www.technologizer.com/2011/11/19/inside-facebooks-amazing-oregon-data-center/
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
Cook, G., and Van Horn, L. (2011). How dirty is your data? A look at the energy choices that power cloud
computing. Amsterdam: Greenpeace International. http://bit.ly/1xMPpFU pp. 4-9.
Tuesday July 14
Lecture: Infrastructure//Where Tubes Meet Workers
Online Activity: Quiz 14
Readings due today:

Downey, G. J. (2014). Making Media Work: Time, Space, Identity, and Labor in the Analysis of
Information and Communication Structures. In Gillespie, Boczkowski & Foot, Eds. Media Technologies:
Essays on Communication, Materiality and Society. Cambridge: MIT Press. 142-165. [Bb]
 Acaroglu, L. (2013, May 4). Where Do Old Cellphones Go to Die? New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/05/opinion/sunday/where-do-old-cellphones-go-to-die.html
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Jackson, S. J. (2014). Rethinking Repair. In Gillespie, Boczkowski & Foot, Eds. Media Technologies: Essays
on Communication, Materiality and Society. Cambridge: MIT Press. 222-239.
Wednesday July 15
Lecture: Infrastructure//Labor and Silicon Valley
Online Activity: Quiz 15
Reading due today:

Irani, L. (2013). The Cultural Work of Microwork. New Media and Society 17: 720-739.
http://wtf.tw/ref/irani.pdf
 Henwood, D. (2015). What the Sharing Economy Takes. The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/article/196241/what-sharing-economy-takes
Optional Supplemental Readings
 Chen, A. (2014, October 23). The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook
Feed. Wired. http://www.wired.com/2014/10/content-moderation/
 Solnit, R. (2014, February 20). “Diary: Get Off the Bus” London Review of Books.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n04/rebecca-solnit/diary
 Wen, S. (2014, November 11). The Ladies Vanish. The New Inquiry.
http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/the-ladies-vanish/
Thursday July 16
Lecture: Infrastructure//Laws, Policies and Piles of Money
We’ll review the requirements for the writing assignment due tomorrow.
Online Activity: Quiz 16
Readings due today:

Freedman, D. (2012). Outsourcing Internet Regulation. In Curran, J., Fenton, N., and Freedman, D., Eds.
Misunderstanding the Internet. New York: Routledge. 95-120. [Bb]
Friday July 17
Lecture: Infrastructure//Case: Net Neutrality
Online Activity: none.
Short Paper #4 Due
Readings due today:

Madrigal, A. and LaFrance, A. (2014, April 25) Net Neutrality: A Guide
to (and History of) a Contested Idea. The Atlantic. http://theatln.tc/1xMSxl8
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

Teachout, Z., and Shaw,T. (2015, February 9). How the Little Guys Beat the Monopolists on Net
Neutrality. The Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/09/how-the-little-guys-beatthe-monopolists-on-net-neutrality.html
Koepke, L. (2015, February 26). The FCC Did NOT Make the Internet a Public Utility. Backchannel.
https://medium.com/backchannel/the-historical-record-of-net-neutrality-747286cbde62
Monday July 20
Lecture: Culture//Remix, UGC and Amateur Participation
Online Activity: Quiz 17
Readings due today:

Van Dijck, J. (2009). Users Like You: Theorizing agency in user-generated content. Media, Culture &
Society 31: 41-58.
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Kurbish, G., with Jenkins, H. (2012, February 29). “C Is For Convergence: How the Cookie Monster
Reformed Canadian Health Care. Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins
http://henryjenkins.org/2012/02/c_is_for_convergence_how_the_c.html
 Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York
University Press.
Tuesday July 21
Lecture: Culture//You’re Doing It Wrong: Play and Appropriation
Online Activity: Quiz 18
Reading due today:

Vickery, J. R. (2014). The curious case of Confession Bear: the Reappropriation of Online Macroimage
memes. Information, Communication and Society 17(3): 301-325. [NSFW]
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Gleick, J. (2011, May). What Defines a Meme? Smithsonian Magazine.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-defines-a-meme-1904778
 Miltner, K. M. (2014). There’s No Place for Lulz on LOLCATS: The role of genre, gender and group
identity in the interpretation and enjoyment of an Internet meme. First Monday 8(4).
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5391/4103
Wednesday July 22
Lecture: Culture//Trolls Trolling Trolls: Humor, Disruption, Harassment
Online Activity: Quiz 19
Readings due today:

Phillips, W. (2015). Defining Terms: The Origins and Evolution of Subcultural Trolling; The Only Reason to
Do Anything: Lulz, Play, and the Mask of Trolling; and Dicks Everywhere: The Cultural Logic of Trolling in
This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream
Culture. Cambridge: MIT Press. 13-36, 115-134. [Bb] [NSFW]
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Kain, E. (2014, September 4). GamerGate: A Closer Look at the Controversy Sweeping Video Games.
Forbes. [NSFW] http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/09/04/gamergate-a-closer-look-at-thecontroversy-sweeping-video-games/
 Brunton, F. Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Thursday
July 23
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Lecture: Culture//No Girls on the Internet? Gendered Spaces, Narratives, Practices, and
Critiques
We’ll review the requirements for the writing assignment due tomorrow.
Online Activity: Quiz 20
Readings due today:

Reagle, J. (2013). ‘Free as in sexist?’ Free culture and the gender gap. First Monday 18(1).
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4291/3381
 Hess, A. (2014, January 6). Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet. [NSFW] Pacific Standard.
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/health-and-behavior/women-arent-welcome-internet-72170/
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Bosker, B. The Most Pinteresting People in the World. Backchannel. http://bit.ly/1xMVRg1
 Taylor, A., and McNeil, J. (2014). The Dads of Tech. The Baffler.
http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/dads-tech
Friday July 24
Lecture: Culture//Beyond Narcissism: Instagram, Selfies and Art
Online Activity: none.
Short Paper #5 Due
Readings due today:

Saltz, J. (2014, January 26). Art at Arm’s Length: A History of the Selfie. New York Magazine.
http://www.cam.usf.edu/InsideART/Inside_Art_Enhanced/Inside_Art_Enhanced_files/6D.Art_at_Arm's_
Length_(2014_article).pdf
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Halpern, M. and Humhreys, L. (2014). Iphoneography as an Emergent Art World. New Media & Society.
 Kotenko, J. (2013, September 7). Instagram Obsessives, Hear This: The #Antiselfie Movement Has
Begun. Digital Trends. http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/if-taking-selfies-is-a-trend-shouldhating-them-be-one-too/
Monday July 27
Lecture: Politics//Anonymous and Radical Technopolitics
Online Activity: Quiz 21
Readings due today:

Coleman, G. (2012, January 13). Our weirdness is free. Triple Canopy. [note: it scrolls sideways and it is
long. Keep reading til you reach the end.] [NSFW]
http://canopycanopycanopy.com/issues/15/contents/our_weirdness_is_free
Optional Supplemental viewing:
 Chen, A. (2013, January 14). The Death of Aaron Swartz and the New Hacker Crackdown. Gawker.
http://gawker.com/5975889/the-death-of-aaron-swartz-and-the-new-hacker-crackdown
 Bruns, A. (2014) Wikileaks: The Napster of Secrets? International Journal of Communication 8:2646-2651.
 The Internet’s Own Boy. A feature-length documentary about Aaron Swartz, distributed free under a
Creative Commons license. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXr-2hwTk58
Tuesday July 28
Lecture: Politics//Activism and Social Media
Online Activity: Quiz 22
Readings due today:

Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The virtual sphere: the Internet as public sphere. New Media & Society 4:9, 9-27.
http://tigger.uic.edu/~zizi/Site/Research_files/VirtualSphere.pdf
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Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Gladwell, M. (2010, October 4). Small Change. The New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-3
 Stone, B. (2010, October 19). Exclusive: Biz Stone on Twitter and Activism. The Atlantic.
http://theatln.tc/1xN2ZZC
 Fenton, N. (2012). The Internet and Radical Politics. In Curran, J., Fenton, N., and Freedman, D., Eds.
Misunderstanding the Internet. New York: Routledge. Pp. 149-176.
Wednesday July 29
Lecture: Politics//Slacktivism
Online Activity: Quiz 23
Readings due today:

Christensen, H. S. (2011). Political activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or political participation by other
means? First Monday 2(7). http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3336
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Yang, J. (2014, March 29). Stephen Colbert, Racism and the Weaponized Hashtag. The Wall Street
Journal. http://on.wsj.com/1xN3umK
 Nekvasil, N. (2014) Transforming Slacktivism into Collective Activism: The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
Gnovis: A Journal of Communication, Culture and Technology. http://bit.ly/1xN3Fyf
 Pearce, M. (2015, January 14). 'Je suis Charlie' and the people who are not Charlie. Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-je-suis-charlie-20150114-story.html
Thursday July 30
Lecture: Politics//DDoS and Other Forms of Direct Political Action
Online Activity: Quiz 24
Final exam handed out.
Readings due today:

Sauter, M. (2014). DDoS and Civil Disobedience in Historical Context; Blockades and Blockages: DDoS as
Direct Political Action; and Against the Man: State and Corporate Responses to DDoS Actions. In Sauter,
M. (2014). The Coming Swarm. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. 19-55; 137-157. [Bb] [NSFW]
Optional Supplemental Reading:
 Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes, New York Times, “Sony Cyberattack, First a
Nuisance, Swiftly Grew Into a Firestorm” (2014) http://nyti.ms/1wlImU4
Friday July 31 Conclusions
No Readings or Quizzes due today.
Monday
August 3 Final Exam Due
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