This semester’s syllabus for my “Theories of New Media (COMM 720)” course

I have restructured my doctoral course this semester. Renewed most of the readings with the most up to date works I could find. Selection of topic are of course arbitrary to some extent but since I track special issues in relevant  journals, the syllabus still offers many of the most current debates. The course is at our PhD program, Communication Sciences, at Istanbul Bilgi University.

Here is the reading and discussion list. Enjoy!

Topics and Reading List

Week 02

The New Media Ecology

Jenkins, H (2016). “Youth Voice, Media, and Political Engagement. Introducing the Core Concepts” in Jenkins, H., Shresthova, S., Gamber-Thompson, L., & Zimmerman, A. By any media necessary: The new youth activism. NYU Press.

Week 03

Rethinking Social Media

Readings from the Social Media bundle.

Week 04

Civic Engagement

Dahlberg, L. (2011). Re-constructing digital democracy: An outline of four ‘positions’. new media & society, 1461444810389569.

Selected readings from the Civic Engagement bundle

 

Week 05   

Digital Archives

Beer, D., & Burrows, R. (2013). Popular culture, digital archives and the new social life of data. Theory, culture & society, 30(4), 47-71.

Selected Readings from the Web’s 25 Years bundle.

Week 06  

Standardizations- Protocols

Selected Readings from the Internet Regulation bundle.

Week 07  

Open/Free Software

Kelty, C. M. (2008). Two bits: The cultural significance of free software. Duke University Press.

 

Week 08  

The Silicon Valley Ethos

Selected readings from the The Silicon Valley Ethos bundle.

 

Week 09

Media Ethnography- Virtual Methods

Beaulieu, A. (2004). Mediating ethnography: objectivity and the making of ethnographies of the internet. Social epistemology, 18(2-3), 139-163.

Ruppert, E., Law, J., & Savage, M. (2013). Reassembling social science methods: The challenge of digital devices. Theory, culture & society, 30(4), 22-46.

Boellstorff, T. (2015). Coming of age in Second Life: An anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton University Press.

Selected readings from the Studying Social Media- Issues of Methods and Ethics bundle.

 

Week 10

Hactivism

Dreyfus, S., & Assange, J. (2012). Underground: tales of hacking, madness and obsession on the electronic frontier. Canongate Books.

 

Meier, P. (2011). Do “liberation technologies” change the balance of power between repressive states and civil society. Unpublished thesis (PhD). The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Available at http://irevolution. files. wordpress. com/2011/11/meier-dissertation-final. pdf [Last accessed 22 October 2013].

Coleman, E. G. (2013). Coding freedom: The ethics and aesthetics of hacking. Princeton University Press.


Week 11   

Big Data- Surveillance

Selected readings from the Big Data- Surveillance bundle.

 

Week 12

Computational Propaganda- Automation, Algorithms, and Politics

Selected readings from the Computational Propaganda bundle.

 

Week 13

Reclaiming Internet

Selected readings from the Reclaiming Internet bundle.

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