March 07, 2005
March 14
Please note that next Monday March 14 we will be meeting in the Hall Building H-443 for a videoconference with Maria Bakardjieva. She will be joining us at 7:30-9 and Eric will be presenting before then.
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March 02, 2005
March 21 - Kids Day - Downtown Library 571-7
We're meeting downtown for the class.
From Sandra Weber:
...the Library building downtown (1400 de Maisonneuve). The room number is 571-7. It is on the 5th floor-- take the corridor to the right, turn right again at Education Department, then left after the men's washroom and down the stairs.
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February 20, 2005
Remember! March 7 is IP! And titles/abstracts for March 7??!
Remember that we swapped March 28 for March 7. Sooooo...
March 7th will be Intellectual Property (no students are scheduled to present) and March 28 will be Community Informatics, with Katrina presenting.
Can you also for March 7 provide me with a title of your presentation/paper and a brief (50-100 word) summary. This is not cast in stone, but this will allow us to prepare a Symposium schedule. Do send more fully-developed proposals my way as soon as you can.
LESLIE
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February 18, 2005
Ken Werbin
Ken Werbin, PhD3 at Concordia University, will be giving a talk on Monday February 21st in our class. His talk will be entitled Studying Cyberspace: From Instrument to Myth.
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February 12, 2005
Readings for February 14
The readings for this week in Feenberg and Barney are:
Feenberg/Bakardjieva; Barney; Borgmann; Dreyfus; Turkle; Shade
And in Seeking Convergence, Longford and Beaton
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January 20, 2005
Student Presentation Dates
This is effective January 20 and subject to change ;)
Jan 17 - Andrea (internet studies & Mosco 1)
Jan 24- Alison (tech ( Mosco 2)
Jan 31 - Renato (dd) and Momin (ICT4D)
Feb 7 - Sabhi (Governance, WSIS)...
Feb 15 - Sophie (vc and public sphere) and Nathan (vc)
Feb 21 - Anne (activism)
March 7 - IP
March 14 - Eric (everyday uses)
March 21 - Nikki, Shanly, Brandi (youth)
March 28 - Katrina, Jian (Community Informatics)
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Course Outline
Overview
Since the late 1990s, the field of ‘Internet Studies’ has ballooned in academia, with dedicated conferences, conference tracks, journals, books, courses, and specialized programs all focusing on various aspects of ‘the’ internet: its economic transformations; policy implications – whether with issues of privacy or intellectual property; social uses – by diverse user groups, social movements, cultural groups and applications – in commerce, education, and leisure; and its politics – issues of governance and regulation, at both local, national, and international levels. A sheer plethora of social premonitions, policy pronouncements, web-based content, and theorizations and critiques have been created and debated. ‘Internet Studies’ is interdisciplinary, encompassing cultural studies, communication and media studies, political science, economics, women’s studies, sociology, and international relations.
This course will cover a wide spectrum of academic literature and studies on and about the internet. Topics include:
• Reflecting on the ‘field’ of Internet Studies – theory, methodological issues
• The political economy of the internet
• Socio-cultural aspects and uses:
everyday uses
virtual communities and citizenship
activism & social justice
community informatics
race and gender
children and youth
• Policy issues:
access/digital divide
intellectual property
privacy/surveillance
ICT4D initiatives (information and communication technologies for developing countries)
• Governance and communication rights
The course format will be seminar-based. Each week there will be a lecture by the professor, followed by a discussion of the week’s theme and readings. Each student (or group of students, depending on the size of the course) will choose one weekly theme to present and lead the class in a discussion (approx. 30 minutes, depending on number of students presenting in a group).
The main assignment is to write either a synthesis or research paper identifying and analyzing an emerging research agenda in Internet Studies. Students will be required to present their papers in the last two class sessions.
Students are required to present their papers at the Montreal Graduate Symposium on New Media, Internet Studies, and Global Governance. This symposium will involve students from two graduate courses in communication studies at McGill. The symposium will take place on Friday, April 15 at a location to be determined.
Required Books
Vincent Mosco. (2004). The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace. MIT Press.
Andrew Feenberg and Darin Barney, eds. (2004). Community in the Digital Age. Rowman and Littlefield
Marita Moll and Leslie Regan Shade, eds. (2004). Seeking Convergence in Policy and Practice: Communications in the Public Interest, V. 2. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Optional:
Mark Warschauer. (2004).Technology and Social Inclusion: Rethinking the Digital Divide. MIT Press.
Leslie Haddon. (2004). Information and Communication Technologies in Everyday Life: A Concise Introduction and Research Guide. Oxford: Berg.
In addition, a CD-Rom of various articles related to internet studies will be distributed in class. Additional readings will be available at the Learning Centre, HB 126. There will also be a course blog.
ASSIGNMENTS
Seminar Participation 25%
Seminar Presentations 25%
Final Paper 50%
Seminar participation consists of active participation in weekly discussions of assigned readings. Please notify me, in advance if possible, if you have any planned absences or in case of illness.
Seminar presentations will consist of 1) a critical oral presentation of a weekly reading theme. Because of the size of the class, this assignment may need to be done in groups and 2) an individual presentation about the student’s synthesis or research paper, for April 4 or 11th, as a lead-up to the Symposium.
Synthesis or research papers will consist of 6500-7500 words (including references) on a topic selected by the student in consultation with the professor. A synthesis paper consists of a critical literature review of a sub-topic of Internet Studies. A research paper explores a specific topic within Internet Studies and may involve more than a review and analysis of secondary source material. Completed papers are due April 25th.
Students are required to present their papers at the Montreal Graduate Symposium on New Media and Internet Studies. This symposium will involve students from two graduate courses in communication studies at McGill. The symposium will be open to the public, and will take place on Friday, April 15th at a location to be determined. Paper presentations will be 15-20 minutes in duration.
WEEKLY SCHEDULE
WEEK 1: JANUARY 10
Introduction to Course and Student Interests
WEEK 2: JANUARY 17TH
Reflecting on the ‘Field’ of Internet Studies and Information Society Debates
Readings
ß Mosco – Digital Sublime, Chapters 1-3
ß Robin Mansell. (2004). Political Economy and New Media. New Media & Society 6(1): 96-105.
ß Graham Murdock. (2004). Past the Posts: Rethinking Change, Retrieving Critique. European Journal of Communication 19(1): 19-38.
ß Katharine Sarikakis. (August 2004). Ideology and policy: notes on the shaping of the Internet. First Monday 9(8). URL: http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_8/sarikakis/index.htm
ß Leslie Regan Shade and Barbara Crow. (Spring 2004). Canadian Feminist Perspectives on Digital Technology. Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies: 161-176.
ß Nina Wakeford. (2004). Pushing at the Boundaries of New Media Studies. New Media & Society 6(1): 130-136.
ß Barry Wellman. (2004). The Three Ages of Internet Studies: Ten, Five, and Zero Years Ago. New Media & Society 6(1): 123-129.
WEEK 3: JANUARY 24TH
Information Society Debates
Readings
ß Mosco – Digital Sublime, Chapters 4-6
ß In Seeking Convergence…
Robert Babe. (2004). Innis, Environment, and New Media, pp. 383-412
ß Dafne Sabanes Plou. (2003). What about gender issues in the information society? In Communicating in the Information Society, ed. Bruce Girard and Sean O Siochru. UNRISD, pp. 11-32.
ß Saskia Sassen. (May 2002). Toward a Sociology of Information Technology. Current Sociology 50(3): 365-388.
ß Judy Wajcman. (May 2002). Addressing Technological Change: The Challenge to Social Theory. Current Sociology 50(3): 347-363.
WEEK 4: JANUARY 31ST
Community and Citizenship
--Access and digital divide
--ICT4D
Readings
ß In Seeking Convergence…
Robert Luke, Open Source Learning, Accessibility, and Digital Diversity in the Network Society, pp. 141-159
ß Mark Warschauer, Technology and Social Inclusion
ß Éric George. (2003). Le ‘fracture numérique’ en question pp. 152-165 en Eric Guichard, dir., Mesures de l’internet. Paris: ed des Canadiens en Europe.
WEEK 5: FEBRUARY 7TH
Community and Citizenship
--Governance and the Right to Communicate
--WSIS
--inc. gender…
Readings
ß In Seeking Convergence…
Marita Moll and Leslie Regan Shade, Vision Impossible?
LR Shade, Situating Communication Rights Historically
Darin Barney, The Democratic Deficit in Canadian ICT Policy and Regulation
ß Marc Raboy. (2004). The World Summit on the Information Society and its Legacy for Global Governance. Gazette: the International Journal for Communication Studies 66 (3-4): 225-232.
WEEK 6: FEBUARY 14TH
Community and Citizenship
--‘virtual communities’, democracy and the public sphere, uses by feminists, social capital
Readings
ß In Feenberg and Barney
Feenberg and Barney, Consumers or Citizens?
Feenberg and Bakardjieva, The Vanishing Table
Barney, Is the Internet the Solution…
Borgmann, Nihilism on the Information Highway
Turkle, Our Split Screens
Shade, Gender and the Commodification of Community
ß In Seeking Convergence…
Graham Longford, Rethinking the Virtual State, pp. 109-140
Brian Beaton, et.al. Living Smart in Two Worlds, pp. 283-297.
WEEK 7: FEBRUARY 21st
Community and Citizenship
--activism
--surveillance
Readings
ß In Feenberg and Barney:
Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner, Virtually Democratic
Phillip E. Agre, The Practical Republic
Amitai Etzioni, On Virtual, Democratic Communities
Diane Johnson/Bruce Bimber, The Internet and Political Transformation Revisited
Douglas Schuler, Towards Civic Intelligence
ß In Seeking Convergence…
Barbara Crow and Michael Longford, Digital Activism in Canada, pp. 349-362
Valerie Scatamburlo D’Annibale and Ghada Chehade, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: The IndyMedia Phenomenon, pp. 363-379.
Serge Proulx. Mondialisation et Mouvements d’Affirmation Identitaire: Expressions Possible de la Société Civile Internationale, ppp. 13-30 en Internet, Nouvel Espace Citoyen?, éds. Francis Jauréguiberry et Serge Proulx. Paris; L’Harmattan.
FEBRUARY 28TH -- SEMAINE DE RELÂCHE
WEEK 8: March 7
Community and Citizenship
Community Informatics
Readings
ß In Seeking Convergence…
Christopher Bodnar, Sewers and Asphalt, pp. 183-200
Mike Gurstein, Effective Use and the Community Informatics Sector, pp. 223-244
Duncan Sanderson et Andrée Fortin. (2002). Penser et Observer Les Communautés Géographiques Dans L’Espace Virtuel: Le Cas se Trois-Rivières, pp. 109-124 en Internet, Nouvel Espace Citoyen?, éds. Francis Jauréguiberry et Serge Proulx. Paris; L’Harmattan.
Communautique – Plateforme québécoise de l'Internet citoyen. URL: http://www.communautique.qc.ca/
WEEK 9: MARCH 14TH
Everyday Uses
Videoconference with Maria Bakardjieva, University of Calgary
Hall Building Room 443
Readings
ß In Feenberg and Barney
Maria Bakardjieva, Virtual Togetherness: An Everyday Life Perspective
In Seeking Convergence…
Andrew Clement, Jane Aspinall, Ana Viseu, and Tracy Kennedy. Public Access, Personal Privacy and Media Interweaving in Everyday Internet Experiences: Exploring Current Policy Concerns via a ‘Neighborhood Ethnography’, pp. 245-282
Leslie Haddon, Information and Communication Technologies in Everyday Life: A Concise Introduction and Research Guide
Sonia Livingstone. (2004). The Challenge of Changing Audiences: Or, What is the Audience Researcher to do in the Age of the Internet? European Journal of Communication 19(1): 75-86.
Joy Pierce. (May 2004). About the Internet: Teaching the ‘Other’ Half. Television & New Media 5(2): 141-146.
WEEK 10: MARCH 21st
Everyday Uses
Youth
Visit from the Digital Girls research project
Readings
Sonia Livingstone. (2003). Children’s Use of the Internet: Reflections on the Emerging Research Agenda. New Media & Society 5(2): 147-166.
Neil Selwyn. (2003). ‘Doing IT for the Kids’: Re-Examining Children, Computers, and the “Information Society”. Media, Culture & Society 25: 351-378.
WEEK 11: MARCH 28TH
Intellectual Property: The Commons Version
Readings
ß In Seeking Convergence….
Jerrold L. Kachur. (2004). Intellectual Property Rights and the Disciplining of Higher Education in Canada and Mexico, pp. 159-182
Lawrence Lessig. (2004). Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. Penguin.
Kirsty Best. (2003). Beating Them at Their Own Game: The Cultural Politics of the Open Software Movement and the Gift Economy. International Journal of Cultural Studies 6(4): 449-470.
WEEK 12: APRIL 4TH
Student Presentations
WEEK 13: APRIL 11TH
Student Presentations
April 15th: Montreal Graduate Symposium on New Media, Internet Studies, and Global Governance. Location TBA.
Final Paper due April 25th
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