Calendar

[Week 1] January 09

Social Media Historical Perspective

Syllabus and course review. Class Introductions. Define the concept of social media. Summarize the historical context of social media as a mode of communication. Contrast with other modes of communication, such as mass media. Introduce and discuss current social media technologies and platforms.

Readings

  • Standage, T. (2013). The Rebirth of Social Media: From ARPANET to Facebook. In Writing on the Wall: Social Media—The First 2,000 Years (1 edition, pp. 214–239). New York: Bloomsbury USA.

Suggested reading:

[Week 2] January 16

Engineering Sociality and the Networked Society

Define the preconditions for the existence of social media platforms. Introduce to concepts of cybernetics and society of control. Discuss the relationship between the technophilic ideology and networked society. Explore the ecosystem of social networks in the culture of connectivity.

Readings

  • Dijck, J. van. (2013). Engineering Sociality in a Culture of Connectivity. In The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media (pp. 3–23). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Barbrook, R., & Cameron, A. (1996). The Californian ideology. Science as Culture, 6(1), 44–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/09505439609526455

Suggested reading:

[Week 3] January 23

Disassembling Platforms*

Define the concept of platform. Discuss platforms as techno-cultural construct as well as socio-economic (infra)structures. Explore the relationships of the vast network of materials, institutions, companies, technologies, algorithms, governance, sovereignty, users, and media that comprise the social media ecosystem. Introduce to methods of study and examine digital platforms.

Readings

  • Dijck, J. van. (2013). Disassembling Platforms, Reassembling Society. In The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media (pp. 24–44). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Crawford, K., & Joler, V. (2018). Anatomy of an AI System. Retrieved November 16, 2019, from Anatomy of an AI System website: http://www.anatomyof.ai

Suggested reading:

  • Light, B., Burgess, J., & Duguay, S. (2018). The walkthrough method: An approach to the study of apps. New Media & Society, 20(3), 881–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816675438
  • DeNardis, L. (2012). Hidden Levers of Internet Control. Information, Communication & Society 15 (5) (June): 720–738.
[Week 4] January 30

Platform Society*

Introduce the concept of datafication and commodification. Discuss the political economy of social media platforms, as well as their geopolitical implications. Introduce the different ways to produce data, both through intentional data sharing and automatic sensors and trackers. Relate to ideas of data tracking, labour exploitation, total surveillance and the goals of late capitalism.

Activity for the next class: Install Second Life. Create an account and an avatar.

Readings

  • Dijck, J. van, Poell, T., & Waal, M. de. (2018). Platform Society as a Contested Concept. In The Platform Society (pp. 7–30). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Crary, J. (2014). 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep. London: Verso. [Excerpt: Chapter 1: 1-28]

Suggested reading:

  • Dijck, J. van, Poell, T., & Waal, M. de. (2018). Platform Mechanisms. In The Platform Society (pp. 31–48). New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Srnicek, N. (2016). Platform Capitalism. Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA: Polity. [Excerpt: Chapter 2: Platform Capitalism: 36-92]
[Week 5] February 6

Virtual Communities and Self-Representation *

Introduce the concepts of virtual communities, avatar, and Massive Multiuser Online platforms (MMO). Explore earlier forms of social media networks (BBS, IRC) and virtual world (Second Life, Word of Warcraft). Discuss the construction and representation of the self in relation to issues of gender, race, group formation, and disembodied experiences.

Activity in class

Come prepared to spend some portion of the class roaming around on Second Life. We should all connect at the same time and meet in a pre-established location. We will introduce our avatar-self to each other, explore the affordances of a virtual 3D environment offers, and discuss how this influences more modern social media platforms.

Readings

  • Rheingold, H. (2000). Multi-user Dungeons and Alternate Identities. In The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (revised edition, pp. 149–180). Retrieved from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/5.html
  • Turkle, S. (1994). Constructions and reconstructions of self in virtual reality: Playing in the MUDs. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1(3), 158–167.

Suggested reading:

  • Parks, M. (2011). Social network sites as virtual communities. In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), A networked self: Identity, community, and culture on social network sites (pp. 39-58). New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Dibbell, J. (1993). A Rape in Cyberspace. The Village Voice. 16p.
  • Rheingold, H. (2000). Real-time Tribes. In The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (revised edition, pp. 181–204). Retrieved from http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/6.html
  • Neustaedter, C., & Fedorovskaya, E. (2009). Presenting Identity in a Virtual World Through Avatar Appearances. In Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2009 (pp. 183–190). Toronto, Ont., Canada, Canada: Canadian Information Processing Society.
  • Leggatt, J. (2016). Material Connections in Skawennati’s Digital Worlds. (230/231), 216–232.
  • Visit: http://indigenousfutures.net/activating-abtec-island/
[Week 6] February 13

Privacy & Surveillance: Facebook*

Introduce concepts of privacy and surveillance. Discuss the power dynamics involved in data production and sharing on social media platforms. Describes the emergent logic of accumulation in the networked sphere, surveillance capitalism, and considers its implications for information civilization. Identify surveillance technologies, including sensors and trackers. Platform to explore: Facebook.

Readings

Suggested reading:

[Week 7] February 20

Social Influence, Bots & AI: Twitter *

Examine the phenomena of social influencers and the snowball effect. Discuss the implications of automation, the use of bots and trends to drive public opinion. Identifies what constitutes legitimate participation in an environment where bots and humans coexist. Platform to explore: Twitter.

New Botnet: Social Media for bots https://startbotnet.com

* SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM CRITICAL PROFILE DUE

Updated New deadline: February 23, 2020 @ 11:59 pm

Readings

  • Dijck, J. van. (2013). Twitter and the Paradox of Following and Trending. In The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media (pp. 68–88). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Duguay, S. (2018). Social media’s breaking news: The logic of automation in Facebook Trending Topics and Twitter Moments. Media International Australia, 166(1), 20–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X17737407
  • Confessore, N., Dance, G. J. X., Harris, R., & Hansen, M. (2018). The Follower Factory. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/27/technology/social-media-bots.html

Suggested reading:

[Week 8] February 27

Reading Week

[Week 9] March 5

Race, Representation and Aesthetics: Instagram*

Discuss the role of social media platforms in the formation of social and cultural normative, including questions of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Identify trends on the aesthetics of sharing, and the constitution of new symbolical capital. Relate to the previous discussions on datafication, surveillance, and self-representation, including selfies. Platform to explore: Instagram.

Readings

  • Roth, L. (2009). Looking at Shirley, the ultimate norm: Colour balance, image technologies, and cognitive equity. Canadian Journal of Communication, 34(1), 111–136. [Video complement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d16LNHIEJzs]
  • Manovich, L. (2016). Instagrammism and contemporary cultural identity. In Instagram and Contemporary Image (pp. 1–25).

Suggested reading:

  • Laestadius, L. (2017). Instagram. In The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods (pp. 573–592). Sage.
  • Palmer, E. (2015). Instagram, Big Data & the New Symbolic Capital of 21st-Century Media Photography. Big Data, 21.
  • Tifentale, A. (2016). The Networked Camera at Work: Why Every Self-portrait Is Not a Selfie, but Every Selfie is a Photograph. Riga Photography Biennial 2016, 74–83. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/23048334/The_Networked_Camera_at_Work_Why_Every_Self-portrait_Is_Not_a_Selfie_but_Every_Selfie_is_a_Photograph
  • Nakamura, L. N. (1995). Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet.
  • NEW Leaver, T., Highfield, T., & Abidin, C. (2020). Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures. Polity.
[Week 10] March 12

Algorithmic Media & Recommendation Systems: YouTube*

Introduce to the concept of Algorithmic Media and Recommendation Systems. Understand how social media platforms select, filter, and personalize users’ feeds. Discuss the ethics of information manipulations, and the social impact of the so-called “echo chamber” phenomenon. Platform to explore: YouTube.

Activity in class

In groups or individually, create a persona and sign up on the most trendy social media of the moment (TikTok). We will examine and discuss the affordances and the recommendation system of this platform.

Readings

Suggested reading:

  • Dijck, J. van. (2013). Youtube: The intimate Connection between Television and Video Sharing. In The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media (pp. 110–131). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Epstein, R., & Robertson, R. E. (2015). The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(33), E4512–E4521. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419828112
  • Covington, P., Adams, J., & Sargin, E. (2016). Deep Neural Networks for YouTube Recommendations. Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems - RecSys ’16, 191–198. https://doi.org/10.1145/2959100.2959190
  • Pariser, E. (2012). The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think (Reprint edition). New York, NY: Penguin Books.
[Week 11] March 19

COVID-19: University closed

[Week 12] March 26 - ONLINE (Discord)

Ranking Cultures & Impersonal Subjectivation

Introduce to concepts of hyper nudge and subjectivation. Identify potential strategies social media platforms use to modulate social habits and produce subjects. Discuss how these subjects operate in our current society, and the implications of rankings and ratings promoted social media platforms have on social, cultural and political relations.

Activity in class: Screening “Nosedive,” Black Mirror Season 3, Episode 1.

Readings

  • Yeung, K. (2016). ‘Hypernudge’: Big Data as a Mode of Regulation by Design’. Information, Communication & Society, 32(1), 32.
  • Langlois, G., & Elmer, G. (2019). Impersonal subjectivation from platforms to infrastructures. Media, Culture & Society, 41(2), 236–251. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818374
  • Watch: “Nosedive,” Black Mirror Season 3, Episode 1. [Available on Netlix]

Suggested reading:

[Week 13] April 2 - ONLINE (Discord)

Disinformation & Simulations*

Introduce to concepts of Simulation and Simulacra, fake news, and disinformation. Discuss the role of social media in the production of narratives and alternative realities. Explore the influence of “echo chambers” and the formation of closed communities, and the implication of disinformation and fake news on politics and democratic elections. Platform to explore: WhatsApp.

Readings

  • Baudrillard, J. (1983). Simulations [Excerpt]. (pp. 1–15). Semiotex(e).
  • Evangelista, R., & Bruno, F. (2019). WhatsApp and political instability in Brazil: Targeted messages and political radicalisationWhatsApp and political instability in Brazil: targeted messages and political radicalisation. Internet Policy Review. https://doi.org/10.14763/2019.4.1434

Suggested reading:

[Week 14] April 09 - ONLINE (Discord)

Social Media Governance & Policy: Wikipedia*

Introduce concepts of governance and policy in relation to socio-technical platforms. Discuss the mechanisms, motivations, and sources of power of social media platforms. Examine the different ways control and governance are enacted and even automatize by digital infrastructures. Identify the main actors involved in producing public or Ad hoc policies for social media platforms. Platform to explore: Wikipedia.

** FINAL PAPER DUE (April 17 @ 11:59pm by email)

Readings

Suggested reading:

[Week 15] April 16 - ONLINE (Discord) (???)

Data Analytics & Digital Methods

Introduce digital methods and data analysis. Identify strategies to study and research social media platforms and digital media in general. Familiarize with a selection of systems, tools, and codes for digital research. Learn how to collect data from social media (Twitter). Discuss the assumptions embedded in such tools.

** FINAL PAPER DUE (April 17 @ 11:59pm by email)

Activity in class

Workshop: Run a script on your computer to collect data from Twitter.

Readings

Suggested reading:

  • Thelwall, M. (2017). Sentiment Analysis. In The SAGE Handbook of Social Media Research Methods (pp. 545–556). Sage.