Author: RSubijanto

Contrary to common perception that sees the Internet as a democratic space, Lisa Nakamura (2013) coins the term “cybertype” to argue how the Internet continues to propagate, disseminate, and commodify images of race and racism that circulate in the society. Additionally, Frank Schaap (2006) explains that “technology is developed by people who are embedded in a particular social, cultural, political, and economic situation” (234). Hence, like the discursive construction of race, the Internet takes certain gender stereotypes as ‘normal’ and ‘neutral’ (.e.g. men as aggressive, women as sexualized and objectified objects) since those are the values that are considered acceptable.

  1. Choose one online game and analyze its gender and race construction. How is a certain racial ideas and gender values represented through the visual, verbal, technological media utilized in the game? Does it reflect the broader social norm or does it in fact try to offer a new understanding of race and gender? In what ways?
  2. Explain how the online game you analyze supports or contradicts Nakamura’s and Schaap’s theory. Provide a quote from each reading to strengthen your argument.

Image source

Scholars and experts have speculated on the future of digital communications and society. Some give hopeful predictions and some others more bleak ones (see this).

What’s your own vision of the future of digital communications? What present aspects of digital communications would you like to see continue and even expand? What aspects would you like to see change and what would be required to enact those changes (policy, technologies, norms, ethics, behavior, etc)? Be specific and, if possible, give links to news on policy, technologies, norms etc that are currently in the making to achieve those goals.

This prompt is made general so that you can freely choose any of the topics we have discussed in class and think about their future. Make sure you discuss the specific problems and challenges related to your topic that we have discussed in class.

You are free to take the side of an optimist, pessimist, or pessoptimist. 🙂

“I’m okay with Facebook behaving like a company, but I think we need to treat it like a company and not treat it like some benign public utility.”

(Sherry Turkle, Terms and Conditions May Apply, 16:51-17:00)

Watch the documentary “Terms and Conditions May Apply.”

  1. What is the relation between the economic systems and the system of government control that we see in the documentary? How is power distributed within this society? What are the implications of that distribution on issues affecting the people’s well-being and freedom?
  2. What are the three (3) facts, stories, or scenes from the documentary that are surprising/shocking to you? What do they reveal?
  3. Your blogpost is due on Thursday April 20. Please label your post under “digital economies.”

Hope you’re enjoying your spring break! 🙂

Digital surveillance refers to the collection and management of data through the use of digital technologies and algorithms for numerous purposes including market research and state control. Using Mark Andrejevic’s concept of market surveillance and Michel Foucault’s “disciplinary society,” reflect on how your online activities  leave digital traces that are useful for various entities to understand you and predict as well as shape your behaviors in the future.

  1. On market surveillance: What forms of personal information are produced by your own usage of digital media in the past week? To what extent is it acceptable to you that your “consumer profile” is collated and stored for future use by third parties?
  2. On state surveillance: Identify and explain an example of a technique of disciplinary power that applies (or likely applies) to you. Is the perceived existence of an “electronic panopticon” sufficient to reduce the likelihood of crimes and misdemeanors occurring? In other words, are you always aware that something somewhere in the hidden computer layer of your online activity is watching your digital movement? If so, does it hinder you from doing ‘illegal’ activities such as illegal downloading, piracy etc? Relate your answer to your own experience.

Include two quotes from the readings we’ve read in class, two questions, and a link as well as visual media in your post. Due Sunday, March 26 by midnight.

Interview 1 (one) of your family members, friends, or colleagues on their identities in social media.

  1. What social media platforms and apps they have used now and in the past?
  2. Do they use their real name(s)? Have they ever used aliases or created fake accounts? Why?
  3. What different personas do they construct in each of these platforms and how do they relate to aspects of their experiences in life?
  4. Do the digital personas they construct help them cope with the problems they face or do they create new problems? In what ways?

Share the result of your interview here and relate your analysis with our discussion of Turkle’s articles as well as Athique’s chapter 5 and 7. Make sure to include two quotes from those readings.

Pick an article (online or offline) on a recent invention related to computer technologies. They can be software, hardware, AI etc.

  1. What is the problem the writer tries to solve?
  2. What is the evidence used?
  3. How is the evidence analyzed?
  4. What is the argument/conclusion/finding? Is it convincing? Why or why not?
  5. What’s missing from the analysis? Do you find any contradictions?
  6. Using Lee Manovich’s new media principles, does the technology described in the article carry any of these characteristics: numerical representation, modularity, automation, variability, and transcoding? Explain.

Photo: The ENIAC programmers

According to Couldry, most media scholars agree that “we are in the middle of a media revolution” (9), which not only transform human actions but also power relations.

Likewise, Athique argues that we are currently living in a digital society (17) in which technical changes lead to new social practices. Here, Athique invites us to consider coupling both technological innovations and social changes in order to understand what it means to live in a digital society.
For your first blogpost, please do the following:
  1. Spend 1 (one) hour online and carefully take down notes on any single activities you do during that hour. Did you click on an ad? Did you ignore a post from a friend that you disagree with? Did you post a photo on Instagram or comment on a reddit post? etc.
  2. Review your online activities and imagine how you would do the activities in pre-digital era. Do the activities occur only with the existence of digital media? Are there activities that can only occur without digital media? In other words, are there activities that HAVE NOT changed in our digital age?
  3. Using Couldry and Athique’s readings, explain
    • In what ways do computerization and digitization improve human activity? Why?
    • In what ways do they create negative consequences? Why?
    • Does digital media revolution bring positive or negative effects to our society?
  4. Make sure you follow the general rule of making a blogpost for this course stated in the syllabus and that you include synthesis/analysis, quotes from readings, hyperlink, visual media, and questions in your post.
  5. Categorize your post under “digital revolution.”