Digital Culture and Politics

MDST 3002

Examines issues at the intersection of digital media, culture and politics, such as regulation and network architecture, piracy and hacking, and grassroots activism. Engage with a range of theories about cultural politics, democracy, liberalism and neo-liberalism in relation to digital information and communication technologies.

In this particular section, we focus on the everyday politics of digital life, in social media and platform labor, and the implications for broader political culture. The course will also guide students through the process of developing an academic research article on the topic, from research and outlining to peer review.

Instructor

Nathan Schneider (“Nathan” or “Professor Schneider”, he/him)
nathan.schneider@colorado.edu
Armory Building, 1B24
Office hours: Wednesday at 4-5 p.m., or by appointment (via email)
Website: nathanschneider.info

Objectives

  • Gain familiarity with academic and popular literature on the politics of digital space
  • Develop and explore an original research question on digital cultures
  • Practice the process of academic research, writing, reviewing, and publishing

Components

The architecture of this course seeks to cultivate a scholarly community around a set of shared questions. The course consists of three concurrent processes: our meetings, your notebooks, and an edited collection of our collective research.

Class meetings

The basis of our academic community is our time together twice each week. In general, we will spend the first session focused on the week's readings, and the second session developing and sharing our own research.

Participation is essential to cultivating a successful community, and participation is not compatible with absence. One or two absences over the course of the semester are acceptable, but please discuss with the instructor if any more are necessary.

Evaluation

20 points

Active participation. Engage in thoughtful participation in class through:

  • Constructive, critical, and original contributions to the discussion (10 points)
  • Respectful listening to other members of the class and feedback on fellow students' ideas (10 points)

Participation will be evaluated twice—once at the midterm, and once at the end of the semester.

Notebook

Research flourishes through cultivating habits. Each week, students will produce a weekly notebook entry on the readings, in dialog with their own research projects. The notebook might consist of a prose reflection, bullet points, annotated pictures, network charts, or whatever else best suits your ways of thinking. Be sure to reflect on both the content of the readings and their methodologies.

Notebooks may be in any persistent medium, so you can refer back to them for years to come. Here are some suggestions:

  • Paper notebook*
  • A folder of word-processor documents or simple plain-text files (e.g., .md, .txt)*
  • Citation managers, such as Mendeley, Zotero*
  • Git repositories, such as Gitea*, GitHub, GitLab*, Gogs*
  • Mind-mappers, such as Diagrams.net*, Miro, Mural
  • Note-taking tools, such as Evernote, Hypothesis*, Joplin*, Simplenote*
  • Wiki platforms, such as BookStack*, DokuWiki*, Notion, Roam Research, Zim*

Asterisks denote open-source software, which is recommended as it gives you more control over your data and likely uses more resilient file formats.

Turn in a digital representation of your notebook entries on Canvas, at the end of each of the three sections. Entries should be completed before class on Tuesday each week.

Evaluation

30 points

Weekly notebook entries. Demonstrate engagement with assigned sources, including the following:

  • Summarize major ideas, particularly those of special interest to you (10 points)
  • Observe shortcomings or potential critiques (10 points)
  • Raise questions for future research that could build on the readings (10 points)

Notebook entries will be evaluated at the end of each of the three sections of the course.

Edited collection

The shared goal we work toward is to produce an edited collection of our class's research on the politics of everyday digital life. Reaching this goal will take us through the full research cycle for producing an original contribution to our shared discourse. In this way, in addition to our explorations of the topics at hand, we will be reflecting on the media of scholarly communication.

You may work individually or in pairs. Pairs will be expected to produce somewhat longer articles. Individuals' articles should be 2,000-2,500 words, not including references. Pairs' articles should be 3,000-3,500. Articles should follow APA style. They should include some approximation of the these sections (which can be adjusted with different names or purposes depending on the context):

  • Introduction
  • Literature review
  • Methodology
  • Findings
  • Conclusion

Each paper should be one of two types:

  • Empirical, collecting data about real-world activity and analyzing it
  • Conceptual, presenting or challenging frameworks for analysis

In a conceptual paper, the “methodology” and “findings” sections might be replaced with a section or sections that develop the conceptual argument.

The paper should also be prefaced with a brief abstract of 150 words, not included in the main word count.

Research should demonstrate a solid grasp of the existing literature around the topic. The number of references will vary based on the type of paper (a conceptual paper may have more than an empirical one), but fewer than 10 references to scholarly sources (not including primary and journalistic sources) is likely inadequate.

While ambition is a wonderful thing, keep in mind that these articles are short, and your top priority should be clarity and precision. A small contribution to existing knowledge may be more successful than a sweeping thesis, which is more likely to contain oversights or excessive generalization.

We will proceed through the process together, with presentations to share early suppositions for feedback, formal peer review, with the goal of publication in our class's edited collection, which we will publish for private circulation.

Evaluation

50 points

Present research questions - 5 points. In one minute, and with one slide, share the questions you plan to investigate and your planned methods.

Extended abstract - 5 points. In under 300 words, summarize your research, including the questions, methods, findings, and contribution to the relevant literature, including references (not included in the word count).

Complete draft - 5 points. Submit a complete draft for peer review, with the required word length, style, and references.

Peer review participation - 5 points. Provide detailed reviews of two fellow students' drafts, 300-500 words each. Restate the findings, identify strengths and weaknesses, and suggest directions for improvement. Determine whether there is need for “minor revisions” or “major revisions” before publication.

Conference - 5 points. In the final week, participate in a class conference, sharing insights from the research and writing process.

Formatted preprint - 25 points. Submit a revised final draft using our shared formatting template, in a brief note of 300-500 words, summarize the revisions in light of peer review in a cover letter.

  • Cover letter (5 points)
  • Grasp of relevant scholarly literature (5 points)
  • Original contribution (5 points)
  • Completeness and stylistic correctness (5 points)
  • Sophisticated engagement with at least two course readings (5 points)

Grading

Based on the stated percentage structure, grades will be awarded as follows: A (94-100), A- (90-93), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72), D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), F (0-59). The minimum passing grade is 60 for undergraduates and 70 for graduate students.

Terms and conditions

Together, we agree to:

  • Work together to foster a respectful, mature, convivial community based on mutual learning, diverse perspectives, and accommodation
  • Adhere to all university policies regarding academic integrity, accessibility, behavior, discrimination, misconduct, inclusivity, and religious observances; we take responsibility for understanding them and the relevant procedures
  • Respect student privacy, keeping any materials or statements shared in class confidential unless permission is granted to do otherwise
  • Be present in our interactions together, refraining from the use of screen devices unless for collective work or accessibility, upon agreement with the instructor

If you find yourself in a position where lack of access to food, housing, health care, or other basic necessities interferes with your studies, consider seeking support from the Dean of Students and, if you feel comfortable doing so, your instructor. We will work to assist you however we can.

Topics

The course proceeds in three topical sections, consisting of one topic per week. Readings will provide examples of diverse types of research articles that you can draw from as examples for your own. All readings are available online and are largely open-access. Some may require access through our university libraries, either on the campus network, through the libraries' website, or on a VPN connection.

1/ Artifacts

Do our networks have politics? How does it matter?

1a/ Micropolitics

1b/ Cyberspace

1c/ Structurelessness

1d/ Iron laws

2/ Anxieties

What is all this doing to us?

2a/ Affect

2b/ Labor

2c/ Bias

2d/ Surveillance

2e/ Abuse

3/ Emergence

What is emerging and who is designing?

3b/ Commons

4a/ Decentralization

3c/ Moderation

3d/ Archaeology


[ Notes ]