CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN DIGITAL MEDIA

COM 3110 UWA 43832

Fall 2017 Wed: 6:059:00pm Vert 9.160
Instructor: Ali Sengul
alifuat.sengul@baruch.cuny.edu
Office hours: By appointment (one group meeting required before presentations)

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines the role of digital media and computers in contemporary culture
within larger histories of social and technological change. We consider the ubiquity of
computers in everyday life and the ways in which personal and collective identities
are shaped by emerging media technologies. Using a range of texts from the
humanities and social sciences, as well as works by filmmakers and visual artists, the
course provides an overview of key aspects of computer-mediated life in our digital
age. Topics include open source culture, media art practices, debates about the real
and the virtual, user-generated content and digital labor, surveillance, cyber-activism,
intellectual property, and the impact of social media. Central to our efforts will be an
examination of the ways social identities, as informed by gender, race, class, sexuality
and other vectors of difference, both shape and are shaped by media and technology.

LEARNING GOALS
Identify, describe, and explain the central critical and theoretical concepts and
methods appropriate for research on new and emerging digital media and art,
Present a detailed account of the historical context in which these concepts
were developed,
Outline and appraise major policy, ethical and identity issues involved in
contemporary digital media and art,

ASSIGNMENTS and GRADING

Attendance and Participation 15%

Your attendance and participation in class discussion will be considered in determining

your final grade. Please take detailed notes during lectures and screenings to advance
class discussion and prepare for exams. If you know you will be unable to attend a
particular class session, please discuss your absence with the instructor in advance. Two
unexcused (documented) absences lower your final grade by half a letter grade. More
than two unexcused absences may result in failing the course. The absence policy
applies to lateness as well. Your two late attendances to classes (15 minutes and more)
will result in one full absence. Students are also responsible for maintaining contact
with their Baruch Webmail addresses for communications from the instructor. If you
have any problems accessing your Webmail account, contact BCTC at 646 312 1010.
Cell phones must be turned off during the class session.

Weekly Reflection Posts 20%

As part of your participation grade, you are expected to contribute 10 (TEN) weekly
reflection posts to our Blackboard Discussion Forum. Please write at least one
question as part of your response to TWO of the reading assignments. You are

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expected to follow the other posts your classmates submit. When discussing specific
sections of a reading, give reference to page numbers, so that your classmates can
easily follow your posts. I will clarify topics in summary responses, presentations and
videos after each forum has closed. Your contributions should demonstrate
engagement in our class topics and reading materials. You may also refer to examples
from your own experiences with media. While these responses are meant to be
informal, they should be written respectfully and clearly. If stating your opinion,
make all efforts to support your claims with evidence. Your responses should be
around 200 words.

Midterm Exam 25%

Midterm exam consists of two sections: a section of short-answer questions for which
you define FIVE concepts; and a section of THREE essay questions. By short answer
I mean ONE paragraph. Essay responses should be around THREE paragraphs each.
The exam duration is 90 minutes. If you need special assistance during the exam,
please notify me at the beginning of the semester. No make-up exam will be
provided unless you provide official documentation explaining your absence.

Final Exam (not cumulative) 25%

Final exam consists of two sections: a section of short-answer questions for which
you define FIVE concepts; and a section of THREE essay questions. By short answer
I mean ONE paragraph. Essay responses should be around THREE paragraphs each.
The exam duration is 90 minutes. If you need special assistance during the exam,
please notify me at the beginning of the semester. No make-up exam will be
provided unless you provide official documentation explaining your absence.

Group discussion leading 15%

One week during the semester you will lead the class discussion with your group.
Discussion groups will be set-up during the second week of the semester. A
successful discussion session should include the summary of the assigned article,
discussion of its relevance both to the earlier weeks topics and to the national and
local political, cultural and technological debates, and at least three discussion
questions to engage the other students into a dialogue. As your individual grade will
be based on the quality of the entire discussion session, you should collaboratively
work on the group dynamic besides your individual discussion.

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Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offense. Baruch College
defines plagiarism as the act of presenting another persons ideas, research or writing
as your own, including:
--Copying another persons actual words without the use of quotation marks and
footnotes.
--Presenting another persons ideas or theories in your own words without
acknowledging them.
--Using information that is not considered common knowledge without acknowledging
the source.
--Failure to acknowledge collaborators on homework.
It is course policy to give a failing grade to any assignment that has been
plagiarized. A functional definition of plagiarism is four or more words taken from the
work of another. In addition, I am required by College policy to submit a report of
suspected academic dishonesty (plagiarism) to the Dean of Students office. This report
becomes part of your permanent file.
Your work must be your own. If you take from the work of another, footnote or
provide a citation for reference, and use quotation marks to indicate what you have
taken. If you use anothers theory and are paraphrasing it (putting it into your own
words), cite the reference. If you take materials from the web, provide a full URL for
reference.
Students submitting material previously or concurrently submitted for a grade in
any other course, whether at Baruch or elsewhere, should reveal this fact using
footnotes. If this material constitutes more than a small portion of your submission,
you should alert me to the nature of this material and obtain permission before
including the material. If you are submitting this material concurrently in another
course, you should also obtain permission from the other faculty member and advise
me when this permission is granted. Details of Baruch Colleges policies on academic
integrity can be found at:
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/academic/academic_honesty.html

Students with Disability: Baruch College provides reasonable accommodations and

modifications for students with disabilities. We strive to ensure that no student with a
disability is discriminated against and that none is denied participation in college
programs and activities for lack of auxiliary aids or other accommodations. Some
people think that a disability has to be visible to be accommodated. This is not the
case. There are many disabilities diabetes, psychological illness, learning
disabilities, AIDS, seizure disorders, arthritis, etc, that require accommodations.
Examples of accommodations are extended time for examinations for students with
learning disabilities or illness, reduced stamina for students who take medication,
which reduces processing speed; adaptive equipment for students with a variety of
disabilities; audio recording of classes. For additional information please visit
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/facultyhandbook/DisabilitiesInformation.htm

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 Course Schedule

Week 1 (8/30) Course Introduction

Week 2 (9/6) Digital Media and Language

Required Readings:
Lev Manovich What is New Media? in The Language of New Media.
James Gleick Drums that Talk and The Persistence of the Word in
The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood.

Recommended Reading:
Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin Introduction: The Double Logic of
Remediation in Remediation: Understanding New Media

Week 3 (9/13) Computing and Communication: Early Histories of

the Digital
Required Readings:
K. Hayles Cybernetics in Critical Terms for Media Studies
Paul N Edwards Why Building Computers in The Closed World: Computers
and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America.
Vannevar Bush As We May Think in The Atlantic

Recommended Readings:
Paul Ceruzzi Introduction and The Digital Age in Computing
James Gleick The Information Theory and The Informational Turn in The
Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood

Video Clip: Claude Shannon

Week 4 (9/20) NO CLASS

Week 5 (9/27) The Internet Hypertext and WWW

Required Readings:
Tim Berners Lee The World Wide Web
Andrew Blum A Network of Networks in Tubes: A Journey to the Center of
the Internet
Paul Ceruzzi The Internet and the World Wide Web in Computing

Recommended Reading:
Janet Abbate Building the Arpanet: Challenges and Strategies in Inventing
the Internet
Fred Turner How Digital Technology Found Utopian Ideology, Lessons from
the First Hackers Conference, Critical Cyberculture Studies.
Week 6 (10/4) AI, Algorithm and Neural Network
Algorithm Code in The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media

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 Tarleton Gillespie The Relevance of Algorithm in Media Technologies.
The MIT Press.
The End of Code Two Wired Articles on A.I: Soon We Wont Program
Computers and What the AI Behind Alphago Can Teach Us About Being
Human
Katherine Hayles Nattarives of Artificial Life in How we Became
Posthuman.
AlphaGo, Deep Mind, Newsfeed
The Wired Microsoft Thinks Machines Can Learn to Converse by Making Chat a
Game

Video Clip: How Algorithms Shape Our World

Week 7 (10/11) Social Media, Algorithm, Free Labour

Zeynep Tufekci Algorithmic Harms Beyond Facebook and Google:
Emergent Challenges of Computational Agency Journal of
Telecommunication and High Technology (203) 2015
Nicole S. Cohen The Valorization of Surveillance: Towards a Political
Economy of Facebook.
Tiziana Terranova Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy

Week 8 (10/18) Digital Technologies and Surveillance

Required Readings
David Lyon 9/11, Synopticon, and Scopophilia: Watching and Being
Watched
Mark Andrejevic Introduction in iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the
Interactive Era. 1-21.

Recommended Readings:
Christian Fuchs An Alternative View of Privacy on Facebook.
Greg Elmer A Diagram of Panoptic Surveillance in Profiling Machines:
Mapping the Personal Information Economy The MIT Press.

Video Clip:
State of Surveillance VICE Interview with Edward Snowden

Week 9 (10/25) Technology, Race, Gender, Sexuality

Required Readings:
Lisa Nakamura and Peter A Chow-White Introduction: Race and Digital
Technology: Code, the Color Line, and the Information Society in Race After
the Internet
Kate ORiordan Gender, Technology, and Visual Cyber Culture: Virtually
Women in Critical Cyber-culture Studies
Maria Fernandez Cyberfeminism, Racism, Embodiment Domian Errors:
Cyber Feminist Practices http://refugia.net/domainerrors/

Recommended Readings:
Faye Ginsburg Rethinking the Digital Age

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 McGlotten, Shaka. Virtual Intimacies: Love, Addiction, and Identity @ the
Matrix. Queer Online, Media, Technology and Sexuality
Read: Drery, Mark, Black to the Future: Afrofuturism 1.0, Flame wars: the
discourse of cyberculture. Duke University Press, 1994

Week 10 (11/1) Materiality of the Digital

Required Readings:
Bill Brown Materiality in Critical Terms for Media Studies.
Nicole, Starosielski Underwater Flow
Andrew Blum Where Data Sleeps in Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the
Internet
Danny Kimball Net Neutrality is a Struggle over Control of Communications
Infrastructure

Recommended Readings:
EFF Zero Rating: What it is and Why You Should Care?
Jennifer Holt Regulating Connected Viewing: Media Pipelines and Cloud
Policy in Connected Viewing: Selling, Streaming, Sharing Media in the
Digital Era

Video clip: Ben Mendelsohn Buried, Bundled and Behind Closed Doors Video

Week 11 (11/8) CopyRight / OpenSource

(Wikipedia, TOR, Creative Commons)

Readings:
Friedrich Kittler Science as Open Source Process in New Media, Old
Media: A History and Theory Reader
Steven Weber Property and Problem of Software and What is Open Source
and How Does it Work? In The Success of Open Source
Open Source Hardware Statement of Principles

Video Clips:
Rip! A Remix Manifesto Video Watch in the Class Relates to Creative
Commons,

Week 12 (11/15) Digital Media and Activism

Required Readings:
Rita Raley Introduction: Tactical Media as Virtuosic Performance in
Tactical Media. University of Minnesota Press.
Ricardo Dominguez Electronic Disturbance. In Cultural Resistance Reader.
Critical Art Ensemble. Electronic Civil Disobedience.

Recommended Readings:
McKenzie Wark A Hacker Manifesto. Anarchitexts.
Gabriella Coleman Our Weirdness is Free: The Logic of Anonymous-Online
Army, Agent of Chaos and Seeker of Justice. Negative Infinity, Triple
Canopy, 15, 2011.
Alexander Galloway Possibility. Anarchitexts, pp. 284-286.

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Video Clips:
The Internets Own Boy
Tribe, Mark. Dystopia Files. http://www.marktribe.net/dystopia-files/ [Watch
the 3 videos]

Links:
http://www.tacticalmediafiles.net

Week 13 (11/22) CyberSecurity

Ronald J. Deibert Black Code Redux: Censorship, Surveillance and the
Militarization of Cyberspace in Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in
Hard Times. The MIT Press.
David Leigh and Luke Harding The Rise of WikiLeaks in WikiLeaks: Inside
Julian Assanges War on Secrecy. guardianbooks.
Rita Zajacs WikiLeaks and the Problem of Anonymity: A Network Control
Perspective
The Wired Obama, The President Special Issue

Week 14 (11/29) Body / Biomedia / Post-human

Required Readings:
Katherine Hayles How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics,
Literature, and Informatics. Prologue and Virtual Bodies and Flickering
Signifiers
Eugene Thacker What is Biomedia?
Donna Haraway A Cyborg Manifesto

Recommended Readings:
Thomas, D. Feedback and Cybernetics: Reimaging the Body in the Age of
the Cyborg in Seth Giddings and Martin Lister (eds.) The New Media and
Technocultures Reader. New York and London. Routledge.
Andy Miah Posthumanism: A Critical History in Medical Enhancements
and Posthumanity.

Video Clips: Clips from Transcendence, Lucy

Week 15 (12/6) The Internet of Things

Samuel Greengard The Reality and Repercussions of a Connected World in
The Internet of Things.
Brian Holmes Drifting Through the Grid
Dan Hill The Street as Platform

Magazine Articles on DDoS:

o What We Know About Fridays Massive East Coast Internet Outage
A Wired Article on DDos attack October 2016
o Major cyber attack disrupts internet service across Europe and US a
the guardian news on the ddos attack in October 2016.
o Hackers used new weapons to disrupt major Websites across U.S. a
NYT article on the ddos attack in October 2016.