Syllabus

DMST 2200: Critical Approaches to Digital Media Fall 2008
Professor: Adrienne Russell
Sturm Hall Room 311 Tuesday and Thursday 2:00-3:50
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00-2:00 or by appointment
Office: Sturm Hall 212 Contact: adrienne.russell@du.edu
Course Blog: http://2200fall2008.blogspot.com/

This course introduces students to the historical, economic, social and behavioral context of the digital media with particular emphasis on the Social Web—the so-called web 2.0 technologies focused on social interaction and community.

The rapid growth of participatory culture online through, for example, interactive news sites, community boards, bookmarking, tagging, virtual worlds, gaming, IM, social networking, and blogging has significant social implications and brings up issues of privacy, intellectual property, and the nature of community and public engagement. This class will explore these issues as they manifest in various cases including politics, youth culture, activism, news and art. Particular emphasis will be placed on the question of how new media differs from mass media across various fields of cultural production (music, news, advertising, for example) and on what influence new digital products and practices might have on these industries and on cultures and societies more generally.

The objectives of this course are two-fold: 1) to become familiar with the various cultural, economic, and political forces that help shape the digital technologies and practices and that vie to determine its future; 2) develop analytical and theoretical tools to examine a specific Internet space, issue, topic, or phenomenon. The aim of this course is not simply to accumulate facts, but to develop analytical and theoretical tools to examine digital media products and practices. We will use two methods in our research. The first centers on our own observations. Students are encouraged to bring to class on a regular basis digital media artifacts that relate to the issues and ideas being covered in class. The second method is based on close reading of the assigned texts. Students are expected to have read the assigned chapters and articles before the class period for which they are scheduled to be discussed.

Classes will combine lectures, student presentations, and discussion. We'll conduct discussions both within the traditional classroom setting and on a course blog. Please remember that discussion is a way of helping you to see different sides of issues and to evaluate different arguments. It is essential in the development of your thinking that you participate in discussions and that you work to express your thoughts effectively.

REQUIRED BOOK
Henry Jenkins. Convergence Culture. NYU Press. 2006.

ORGANIZATION OF COURSE AND ASSIGNMENTS
Blog
You will receive an invitation via email to join our blog group. Please follow the directions in the email. This is not an extended discussion format as much as it is a graffiti wall and an ongoing exercise in collaborative linking. At least once a week by Sunday at midnight you must contribute to our blog a link and a short review (1 paragraph) of a site, article, art project, news story, or other resource relevant to that week's reading assignments. Also you are required to comment on at least 2 other blog posts each week.

Reading Responses
Each Thursday you will be asked to turn in a one-page typewritten response to the reading. This should include your reflections on the readings and questions and issues it raised. You need not reference all of the reading but your response should be informed by your grasp of the all of the material assigned for the week.

Presentation
In order to integrate diverse material into the course, each student will present in class a digital media product (an ad, a website, a video clip, an article, a video game etc.) and present it, explaining how it exemplifies, problematizes, or in some way helps illuminate an issue or idea that we are discussing in the course. The assignment is intentionally not strictly defined.

Here are a few guidelines to consider as you plan your presentation:
1) you must show a digital media product in class; 2) be prepared to talk to the class about how your media
product is related to a particular topic, issue, or theory; 3) consider preparing some questions for the class to encourage involvement in the analysis of your media product; 4) consider focusing on a media product you are particularly familiar with that others may not be (for example, if you are from a country other than the US presenting something from where you grew up, or if you are really into cell-phone ring-tones bring in your phone and some ideas about how ring-tones relate to the larger issues being addressed in the course); 5) be prepared to speak for at least 10 minutes and not longer than 20 minutes; 6) be absolutely sure to present on the day on which you signed up to present; 7) come talk to me or send me an email if you need help coming up with or refining an idea.

Exams
There will be two exams. They will be essay exams and you will be allowed to use any material you like to inform your work including consulting with classmates, the web, books, articles, email exchanges with your parents, whatever. You must, however, use your own words to craft the answers to the questions and you must do so in the time allotted for the exam.

Evaluation
Class discussion and participation 150
Blog (10 points each) 100
Reading responses (10 points each) 100
Presentation 50
Exams (100 points each) 200
Total possible points 600

ACADEMIC HONESTY
Please be honest in your work. You are expected to express your thoughts in your own
words and to use citations when using other people’s words or ideas. Any form of
dishonesty in this class will result in an F, either for the assignment or for the entire course, depending on the incident. If you have questions or are unsure about a particular practice, please ask me for help before you turn in the assignment in question.