Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor
Rowan Tulloch
Contact via rowan.tulloch@mq.edu.au
Y3A 191C
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
12cp
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
This unit introduces students to debates surrounding the internet and the world wide web. It articulates some of the complex relationships between technology and society, and examines how new media technologies may shape our contemporary mediascape and our lives. Students undertaking this unit learn how to design and create simple web sites, analyse cybercultures, and engage with key debates surrounding new media technologies. The production component of this unit is introductory and does not require any special software or prior knowledge. It is complemented by a theoretical analysis of cybercultures in which key opportunities and threats posed by new media technologies are explored.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Due |
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Tutorial Participation | 10% | Ongoing |
Tutorial Papers | 30% | Week 5 & Week 8 |
Major Essay | 35% | 5pm Friday Week 13 |
Website Project | 25% | Week 13 |
Due: Ongoing
Weighting: 10%
The purpose of tutorials is for students to discuss the weekly topics and readings to enrich their understanding. All students are required to participate in tutorial discussion. This means arriving at tutorials having completed set readings and being prepared to discuss issues arising.
The format of tutorials is based around student-led discussions. Your responses to your peers will form the basis of your participation mark.
You will be assessed on four criteria:
Attendance is not the same as participation. Students receive no marks for simply attending tutorials.
Due: Week 5 & Week 8
Weighting: 30%
Students are required to submit two separate tutorial papers during this semester. Each is to be 500 words long and must engage with one of the readings from the unit reader. The first paper must engage with a reading from weeks 2 to 5, the second with a reading from weeks 6 to 8.
Students must analyse the reading and critically reflect on its key ideas and arguments.
Students should identify the key concepts and argument. What is the author saying? Why?
Evaluate the argument. Is this a strong argument? Why/ Why not?
Contextualise the argument within broader academic frameworks. How is this argument similar or different to what other theorists are saying?
You should not simply summarise the reading, you must explore, expand, and critique the author's major arguments.
Tutorial papers should follow standard academic writing practices, i.e. be formal in tone and reference cited material. Students are encouraged to draw on examples of technological forms and practices they are familiar with to better engage with and build upon the key ideas from the reading.
Students must submit online through the unit iLearn site prior to the start of their assigned tutorial.
Students will be assessed on the following:
Demonstrated ability to identify and articulate author's key arguments
Demonstrate ability to critically engage with key arguments
Demonstrated ability to contextualise article core arguments within broader theory
Style, coherence, and structure of writing
Due: 5pm Friday Week 13
Weighting: 35%
Students are required to submit a 2000 word essay addressing the following question:
MAS240 is concerned with examining the cultures that have sprung up around computer technologies and the networked environment. Select a ‘new media technology’ and critically analyse it with a focus on its history and cultures.
Note: Essays will be submitted, marked and returned electronically via iLearn.
Marking Criteria
- What is the quality of your research?
- Have you identified and made use of appropriate resources beyond those provided in the unit reader?
Due: Week 13
Weighting: 25%
Students are required to plan and develop a Website. Websites are due to be presented in your timetabled workshop session in week 13: This means that your Website must be completed PRIOR to that class. You will not be given any class time in week 13 to complete your Websites and will be penalized as a late submission.
You may choose the topic of your Website, for example, you may build an online CV or a fan site for your favourite band or video game. All Websites must satisfy the following criteria:
Marking Criteria:
Design
Content
Coding
Each week students must attend a 1 hour lecture, 1 hour tutorial and 1 hour workshop.
Tutorials and workshops start in Week 2.
Late penalties for assignments are 10% per day, including weekends, unless otherwise stated in assignment description.
There is a unit reader available for purchase in the Coop Bookshop. All students are expected to have a copy.
Further resources for MAS240 can be accessed through iLearn: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/.
Technologies used and required: PC and Internet access are required. Basic computer skills (e.g., internet browsing) and skills in word processing are also a requirement.
Please consult teaching staff for any further, more specific requirements.
Changes Made to Previous Offerings of the Unit
The topics in this unit have been updated to reflect contemporary technological and cultural forms and practices. Recent academic material has been added to this unit in order to best offer students insight into the rapidly changing media environment, with a particular focus on social and participatory media, new digital economies, and cyber politics. The weighting of assignments has also been changed this year.
Week 1 – Introduction
The first lecture for MAS240 will introduce students to the unit and go through assessment tasks and deal with any questions.
There are no tutorials or workshops this week.
Week 2 – Introduction to Cybercultures
What are cybercultures? How do we define and categorise them? What kinds of things do they involve? How do cybercultures impact on your life?
READING:
Castells, M. (2003). The Internet galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.36-63.
Week 3 – Web 2.0: Participatory Culture
This week we will begin looking at Web 2.0 and the idea of participatory culture. How is society altered by everyone and anyone being able to share their thoughts and ideas? Are Web 2.0 sites like Facebook, Youtube, Tumblr, etc. a democratising force, giving everyone a voice, or simply a dumping ground for mindless, trivial and banal content? Is the quality of what we watch, listen to, and read declining? Are new forms, genres, and viewing practices emerging?
READINGS:
Lessig, L. (2008). Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy. Penguin Press HC. pp 23-33
Keen, Andrew. The Cult of the Amateur, Crown Business, 2008, pp.25-63.
Week 4 – YouTube: Memes, Viruses, and Contagious Media
YouTube requires us to rethink how we access and learn about media content. What do we watch on YouTube? How do we find out about it? Why do some videos become so popular when others are instantly forgotten? How does the content that become popular on YouTube differ from what is popular on TV? Why?
READINGS:
Rushkoff, D. (1996). Media virus!, Ballantine Books. pp. 3-16.
Phillips, W (2010) In Defense of Memes, available at http://spreadablemedia.org/essays/phillips/#.UP4a8meapeE
Week 5 – From Netflix to Amazon: New Digital Economies
In the information overload of the internet how do we find material that interests us? What new economic models, legal and illegal, have developed? What are we willing to pay for? What do we want for free? How are traditional business models adapting? What do these new digital economies mean for the type of content we can access?
READING:
Anderson, C. (2004). 'The Long Tail' in Wired, Issue 12.10.
Thompson, C. (2008). 'If You Liked This, You’re Sure to Love That' in The New York Times Magazine, November 21, 2008
Week 6 –Bittorrent and Peer to Peer Technology: Digital Rights and Wrongs
Is copyright obsolete in the digital era? Can piracy possibly be regulated? Is digital rights management a viable and fair option? What kind of rights should consumers be able to exercise over their purchased media?
READINGS:
Mason, M. (2008). The Pirate's dilemma, London: Penguin Books, pp.33-67.
Kusek, D., & Leonhard, G. (2005). The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution,Berkley Press, pp.80-96.
Week 7 – Facebook: Online Identities
This week we explore the notion of online identity. We look at how social networking sites like Facebook have changed the way we understand ourselves and others. We look at the questions raised by social networking: can, and should, we distinguish between our virtual and 'real world' identities? How are our lives influenced by the kinds of self-representation offered by Facebook? We will also look at the way in which our identities have been commodified, and look at how personal information has become a valuable product in the social networked age.
READINGS:
Kirkpatrick, D. (2011). The Facebook effect, Simon & Schuster,pp 1-17.
Galloway, A. R. (2004). Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization, MIT Press. pp. 3-27. (Please note: this is a difficult reading, the important theoretical material comes towards the end. If you are struggling with the technical information early on, skim the early pages and focuson the ‘Periodization’ section p20 onwards)
Week 8 – Reddit, 4chan and Anonymous: Freedom of Speech, Activism and Trolling in Online Communities
Advocates of internet freedom argue the net offers us a unique opportunity to break from establish hierarchies and challenge traditional authorities. Opponents claim it is a dangerous space of unregulated prejudice, extremism, bullying and harassment. This week we will look at the reddit and 4chan forums, as well as the activist group Anonymous, to examine some of the discussions, debates, and controversies that have taken place within and around these online communities. We will look at how the rules and etiquettes of online interaction are not always the same as those that govern the rest of our lives, and explore what impact this has on what is discussed and how these discussion take place.
Chen, A. (2012) The Man Behind the Troll: Unmasking Reddit’s Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web, on Gawker, available at http://gawker.com/5950981/ (Please note: this article contains content some students might find offensive or confronting)
Elliott, D. C. (2008). Anonymous Rising. LiNQ, 96. Available at http://www-public.jcu.edu.au/public/groups/everyone/documents/ebook/jcuprd1_056530.pdf#page=94
Week 9 – Mobile Technologies: Mobile Cultures
How has mobile technology changed our lives? How have mobile digital devices like iPod, iPads, smartphones etc. changed how we work and play? What does the fact that we can communicate on the move mean for our social relationships? What unique problems does mobile technology cause police and governments?
READINGS:
Goggin, G. (2006) ‘SMS Riot: Transmitting Race on a Sydney Beach’, December 2005 in M/C Journal Volume 9 Issue 1.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid life, Polity, 2005. pp 1-14
Week 10 – Wikileaks: The Politics of Information
How is power exercised in the digital world? Who has the right to collect and distribute information? What right to privacy do individuals have? What right to control information do governments have? Whose responsibility is it to safeguard our information?
READINGS:
Sifry, M. L. (2011). WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency, Or Books. pp19-38
Birmingham, J. (2010) 'The Man Who Fell to Earth: Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks' in The Monthly, October 2010
Week 11 – Online Gaming: Crowds, Clouds, and Distributed Intelligence
The rise of cybercultures brings with it new types of entertainment. This week we will be looking at Alternate Reality Games and exploring how this form relies upon and builds strong virtual communities. We will ask: What is the power of the crowd? What can communities achieve that the individual cannot? Does the distributed intelligence witnessed in games like 'the beast' reveal new possibilities not just for games but for society more broadly?
READINGS:
McGonigal, J. (2003). This is not a game: Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play. In Melbourne DAC 2003 Streamingworlds Conference Proceedings.
Surowiecki, J. (2005). The wisdom of crowds, Anchor, pp. 3-22.
Week 12 – The Future of Cybercultures
This week we will be looking back over the key themes of this unit, and drawing together the various ideas to explore the future possibilities of cyberculture. Can we predict where society is heading? What are technologies that are most likely to shape our lives, our country, and our world in the years to come? What will the major battles, and key areas of debate when it comes to technology in the future?
READING:
No readings for this week, but all students must bring a 300 word essay plan to their tutorials. It must outline your argument and three key theoretical resources you will be using.
Week 13 – No lecture
Tutorials this week will focus on essay preparation. You should be well underway with researching and writing your essay. This week will offer you a chance to sit down with your tutor and troubleshoot any problems you are having.
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html
Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://informatics.mq.edu.au/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
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