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COMS 3403A - Communication, Technology and Culture (Winter 2018)

Communication Studies, Carleton University

Class Schedule: Wednesdays, 14:30 - 17:30

Location: Tory Building 342

Instructor: Dr. Tracey P. Lauriault

E-Mail: include (COMS 3403 in the subject line)

Office: 4110 River Building

Office Hours: Tuesdays 13:00-16:00, Fridays by appt. after 13:00

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Course Description

The course examines the contemporary and historical relationship between communication technology, society and culture. In the first half students will study the communication infrastructure from a number of perspectives: philosophically, geographically, technically, ideologically, materially, and as part of nation building. The second half is dedicated to technologies, such as platforms, applications and software that co-evolved and were enabled in some part by the underlying communication infrastructure. Students will learn to critically examine the following: hacking and technological citizenship; the sharing economy & Bitcoin; dashboards & control rooms, smart cities & precision agriculture; autonomous cars & drones, IoT; the mediation of love; technological resistance & surveillance, among many others.

Course Objectives

Students will:

• learn that the material technology of communication infrastructure is a feat of engineering, but also science, society, culture, geography, politics and ideology;
• study old and contemporary technologies as an assemblage of artefacts, networks, systems, institutions, practices, and people;
• think critically about technology by engaging with key sociological and philosophical concepts and contextualize these with examples;
• acquire the knowledge and skill to identify and distinguish technological narratives and the vocabulary to describe and articulate them;
• and finally, develop their ability to critically examine technology.

Assignment Submission Instructions:

• Submit to cuLearn

• Format: .doc, .docx, .rtf (NOT .pdf or .Pages)

• Use 12 pt font, 1.5 line spacing, 1-inch margins and indent paragraphs

• Include page numbers

• Citation style: Chicago, Harvard, APA

• Include a document header as follows:

COMS3403A Communication, Technology and Culture, Submitted to: Dr. Tracey P. Lauriault, Assignment #, dd/mm/yyyy, First and Last Name, Student ID

• File naming convention: LastNameFirstName_COMS3403_Assignment#

Example: OrganaLeia_COMS3403_PaperProposal.docx

Assignments

Technology Community Observation Assignment

Students will attend a meetup, a hackathon, a City of Ottawa Technology sub-committee meeting, or a technology seminar on or off campus during the term. Students are attending as observers, and will take notes: observe how the agenda is set, who is convening the meeting, where is the meeting, how is the meeting structured, what is the purpose of the meeting or gathering, what is being discussed, how many people in attendance, what are the demographics (age, race, gender/sex, etc.), who is doing most of the talking, who is asking questions, did anyone talk to you? etc. Finally share your observations of this type of gathering and be sure to engage with concepts you learned in class.

Final Essay

Students will demonstrate their familiarity with the course material by applying concepts and theories about technology in relation to a specific technology of their choice. Students will recognize counter arguments, while also developing strong and original arguments.

Essay Proposal (1 page Quad Chart)

• Introduce the technology you will discuss in you essay.
• Provide two potential research questions.
• State which theory, philosophy and concepts you plan to engage with & why.
• References

Final Essay

Include references and a cover page, you may insert images, charts, and tables, etc. which can extend your page count, but be sure to label these.

Final Exam

The final exam will include a combination of multiple choice and short answer questions about concepts, topics, and issues, and an essay question. If you miss the exam, you must apply for a formal deferral from the Registrar’s Office.

Late Policy

Extensions must be requested in advance, in person, and will typically require documentation of an extended illness or other significant disruption to your ability to complete the required work.

Readings & Schedule

Week 1 (Jan.10) – Introduction – What is Technology?

Welcome to the class! We will get to know each other, go over readings and learning objectives. We will begin to define technology, and explore its meaning by discussing the devices and apps we wear, carry with us and use every day. You will also begin to learn how to frame technology ideologically and to critically discuss whether or not artifacts have politics.

Class will be informed by:

• Barbrook, Richard and Andy Cameron (1996) The Californian Ideology, Science as Culture, 6(1) pp.44-72, also available via Hypermedia Research Centre

• Winner, Langdon (1980) Do Artifacts Have Politics? Daedalus, Vol. 109, No. 1, Modern Technology: Problem or Opportunity? Winter, 121-136.

Assignment 1

In 3 pages you are to write about a technology that you carry with you or use every day, it can be a device or an app, one you think you cannot do without. Abstain from using that technology for a full 24 hour period and keep a diary of observations related to that abstention. Name the device or app, name the company that made it, state where it is made, the cost, does it rely on any underlying infrastructure, if there are ongoing costs, to whom do you pay these costs, how often have you replaced it, can it be recycled, can you modify/hack it, is there is a terms of use; what is it and who owns the data and what are your privacy rights, describe the device aesthetically, instrumentally, and emotionally and discuss how you use it. Include observations from your diary about your 24 hour abstention.

Week 2 (Jan. 17) – Technology, Society and Culture

In this class we will define what a socio-technological perspective is, and discuss the social shaping qualities of technology. Students will learn that social and cultural changes are not solely determined by technology but are intertwined with a combination of micro-, meso, and macro-level processes. Some of the concepts that will be discussed are: augmentation and wearables, simulation and artificial intelligence, autonomous technologies such as the autonomous cars and UAVs or drones, cyborgs and transhumanism.

Compulsory Reading:

• Chapter 1, The Technological Society, 1-18.
• Gehl, Robert W. & Bakardjieva, Maria (2017) Social Bots and their Friends Chapter 1 in Gehl, Robert W. & Bakardjieva, Maria eds. Social Bots and Their Friends: Digital Automation of Sociality, New York: Routledge, P.1-16.

Week 3 (Jan. 24) – History & Philosophy of Technology

Students will study some of the key theoretical perspectives that frame thinking about technology, society and culture as follows: technological determinism, instrumentalism, substantivism, gender and technology, critical theory, a composite view, social constructivism and science and technology studies (STS). Software, code, platform, algorithm, data and infrastructure studies are new domains which engage with these views and philosophical approaches.

Compulsory Reading:

• Chapter 2 Technology in Society: A Historical Overview, 19-41
• Chapter 3 Theoretical Perspectives on Technology, 42-61.
• Tim O'Reilly videos
• Elon Musk Article

Non-compulsory Reading:

Quinn, Michael J. (2017) Ethics for the Information Age 7th Edition, Boston: Pearson. p.1-43

• Section 1.2 Computing
• Section 1.3 Networking
• Section 1.4 Information Storage and Retrieval

Week 4 (Jan. 31) – Communication Infrastructure

This class will take place in Ottawa Room and MADGIC in the library where we examine large technological systems and the materiality of infrastructure by studying the curated map, atlas and document display in the MADGIC entitled the Evolution of the Canadian Communication Infrastructure - made especially for you. You will learn to read communication technology maps, identify patterns, indicators, the geography of communication, and consider policy, politics, business and economics as these pertain to communication and nation building.

Compulsory Reading:

1. Chapter 6 The Adoption and Diffusion of Technological Innovations, 105-124.
2. Goldsmith, Jack and Wu, Tim. (2006) Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World, Oxford University press.

• Chapter 4, Why Geography Matters p.49-64
• Chapter 11, Globalization meets Government Coercion, p.179-185.

Non-compulsory Reading:

• Dodge, Martin and Rob Kitchin (2001) The Atlas of Cyberspace Chapters 1 Mapping Cyberspace & 2 Mapping Infrastructure and Traffic, pages 10-22, 52-55.

Assignment 2

In the Map, Data and Government Information Centre there is a map display entitled the Evolution of the Communication Infrastructure in Canada. The maps are organized into 6 groups. You will be assigned a set of maps and an in-class assignment will be handed to you. These maps and books are irreplaceable please treat them with care.

Assignment 3

You will have been pointed to a number of manuscripts from the Canada Year Books (1861-2011) as well as three Commissions (1929, 1949-51 & 1957) in the Library. Six of the Year Books include a special history of communications in Canada (1932, 1933, 1947, 1957-58, 1959 and 1967). You will be assigned a section to read and will discuss your observations in relation nation building and the diffusion of innovation chapter. When reading pay attention to indicators, the technologies discussed, were any key figures mentioned, were any policies, laws, regulations mentioned, any other actors discussed (i.e., unions, associations, private sector entities etc.). How do you think what you read relates to the construction of the Canada as a nation? How does what you read relate to the adoption and diffusion of technological innovations?

Week 5 (Feb. 7) – Digital Labour and the Digital Divide

This week students examine the internet as a platform, and network for digital labour and how the uneven materialities of the infrastructure affect divisions of labour. In class we will look at how ‘non traditional’ actors engage in the shaping of the communication infrastructure by looking at civil society, professionals, designers and makers.

Compulsory Reading:

• Chapter 7 & 8, The Labour of Technology and Technology and Inequality, 125-167

• Graham, Mark (2014) Internet Geographies: Data Shadows and Digital Divisions of Labour, in Mark Graham and William H. Dutton eds. Society and the Internet: How Network Information and Communication are Changing Our Lives, 99-117.

Non-compulsory Reading:

• Brookings Institute (2017) Will robots make job training (and workers) obsolete? Workforce development in an automating labor market?

Week 6 (Feb. 14) – Love, Relationships and Porn

The communication infrastructure, from the telegraph to the internet, has enabled the management of long distance relationships, marriage, finding a mate, and stimulation. This week we examine how distance can be bridged across time and space. We will look at relationships and intimacy, ow preferences are datafied by looking at two popular apps Tinder and Grindr.

Compulsory Reading:

• Chapter 10 Technology Mediated Relationships, 190-211.

• Christian Licoppe, Carole Anne Rivière, Julien Morel (2015) Grindr casual hook-ups as interactional achievements, New Media & Society, 18(11) 2540 – 2558

• Duguay, Stefanie (2015) Dressing up Tinderella: interrogating authenticity claims on the mobile dating app Tinder, 351-367.

Non-compulsory reading:

• Chauntelle Anne Tibbals (2014) Gonzo, trannys, and teens – current trends in US adult content production, distribution, and consumption, Porn Studies, 1:1-2, 127-135.

Week 7 (Feb. 28) - Code, Software and Platforms

Code, software and platforms mediate our interactions on the internet are built upon the underlying communication infrastructure. This week students will study the ‘platform revolution’ and will learn to distinguish the components of a platform ecosystem, examine some of its drivers. Student will be introduced to software studies which is lens through which to examine platforms and to think about code theoretically.

Compulsory reading:

• Chapter 5 Techno Social Designing, 82-104.

• Srnicek, Nick. (2017) Platform Capitalism, Chapter 2 in Platform Capitalism, Cambridge: Policy. P.36-92.

• Castelvecchi, David, Can we Open the Black Box of AI, Nature (538) p. 20-23.

Non-compulsory reading:

• Tiwana, Amrit, (2014) The Rise of the Platform Ecosystem, in Platform Ecosystems: Aligning Architecture, Governance, and Strategy, Boston: Elsevier and Morgan Kauffman, 3-21.

• Parker, Geoffrey G.; Van Alstyne, Marshall W. and Choudary, Sangeet Paul, (2016) Tomorrow: The Future of the Platform Revolution, in The Platform Revolution, 261-289.

Week 8 (Mar. 7) – The Sharing Economy

In this lecture we examine the sharing economy, some of its models, transaction platforms and distributed networks, crowdfunding, the blockchain and Bitcoin, participatory budgets and PayPal. We will discuss control, alternative paths, the disappearance of the cash economy and how that relates to surveillance and control. We will encounter libertarianism, counter neo-liberal agendas, alternative financing, and managing trust.

Compulsory Reading:

• Morgan, Bronwen and Declan Kuch (2015), Radical Transactionalism: Legal Consciousness, Diverse Economies, and the Sharing Economy, Journal of Law and Society, 42 (4), pp. 556–587

• Calo, Ryan and Rosenblat, Alex, (2017) The Taking Economy: Uber, Information, and Power (March 9, 2017). Columbia Law Review, Vol. 117, 2017; University of Washington School of Law Research Paper No. 2017-08. Alternate link here

Non-compulsory reading:

• Sundararajan, Arun (2016) The Sharing Economy, Market Economies and Gift Economies. Chapter 1 in The Sharing Economy : The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism MIT Press, 2016 p. 23-46.

• Schor, Juliet B., Edward T. Walker, Caroline W. Lee, and Paolo Parigi and Karen Cook. (2015) On the Sharing economy Alternate Link here, Contexts, (14)1, pp. 12-19. ISSN 1536-5042. (7 pages)

• Bheemaiah, Kariappa (2015?) The Block Chain 2.0: The Renaissance of Money, Wired Magazine

Week 9 (Mar. 14) – Resistance, Hacking, Technological Citizenship

This week students will look at those who produce open source software, white and black hat hackers and hackathons. Students will examine instances of cyberactivism and infrastructural control and what it means to be a technological citizen. In addition we will examine different conceptual views of community, and social capital, networked individualism, third places and digital revolutionaries.

Compulsory Reading:

• Chapter 9 Community in the Network Society, 168-189.

• Kubitschko, Sebastian, (2015), Hackers’ media practices: Demonstrating and articulating expertise as interlocking arrangements, Convergence, The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 2015, Vol. 21(3) 388–402.

Non-compulsory reading:

• Coleman, E. Gabriella (2013) The Life of a Free Software Hacker, Chapter 1 in Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking. Oxford: Princeton University Press, pp.25-61.

• Feenberg, Andrew, (2011), Agency and Citizenship in a Technological Society. Lecture presented to the Course on Digital Citizenship in a Technological Society, IT University of Copenhagen, pp. 1-13.

Week 10 (Mar. 21) – Surveillance and Policing

Assange and Snowden have changed the nature of media reporting, their actions put a spotlight on the privatization of the internet infrastructure, the monitoring of content and government snooping. Traditional media channels have been put into question and blackboxed state secrets about the misdeeds of government were made public. Whether they be friends or foes, our relationship with media and government has changed. Students will also learn to define surveillance and examine it from different perspectives including ways to resist it.

Compulsory Reading:

• Chapter 11 The Surveillance Society, 212-236.

• Upturn (2014) Predictive Policing: From Neighborhoods to Individuals, Chapter 3 in Civil Rights, Big Data and Our Algorithmic Future .

• Marr, Bernard (2017) How Robots, IoT And Artificial Intelligence Are Transforming The Police, Forbes. Sept. 19.

Non-compulsory reading:

• Brevini, B. and Murdock,G. Following the Money: Wikileaks and the Political Economy of Disclosure, in Brevini, B., Hintz, A., and McCurdy (2013) Beyond Wikileaks. New York: Palgrave, 35-55.

• Lyon, David, (2015) The Snowden Stakes: Challenges for Understanding Surveillance Today, Surveillance & Society, 13.2, pp.139-152.

Week 11 (Mar. 28) – Ethics and the Environment

The internet is not virtual, it is very material and there are implications to 24/7 access in terms of energy consumption, server farms need to be cooled, powered and require buildings and fibre let alone all of the materials required to produce the servers. Built in obsolescence combined with the status of the latest and greatest of electronics has led to e-waste and in some parts of the world political strife resulting from the mining of precious metals. Communication technology has an ecological footprint and presents us with ethical issues. This week students will be exposed to different points of view regarding progress, inequality, neutrality, design destiny as well as privacy and strained attention and e-mining.

Compulsory Reading:

• Chapter 12 Ethical Dimensions of Technology, 237-257.

• Video: The Trouble with Bias, Kate Crawford Keynote Speech at NIPS, Kate Crawford delivers her keynote, The Trouble with Bias, from Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) 2017.

Non-compulsory reading:

• U.S. National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology (2016) Preparing for the Future of AI

• IT Business Edge (2011?) Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics.

• Lezhnev, Sasha and Prendergas, John (2009) From Mine to Mobile Phone: The Conflict Minerals Supply Chain, Enough Project,

• Raj, Shannon. (05/01/2011). Blood electronics: Congo's conflict minerals and the legislation that could cleanse the trade. Southern California law review. (84)4: 981.

Week 12 (Apr. 4) – Review

Last class already! We will go over concepts review the course materials and go over the exam.

Exams April 10 – 25

COMS3403 Syllabus by Tracey P. Lauriault is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://github.com/TraceyLauriault/COMS3403_Winter2018.