COMM 410 / SOCI 409 NEW MEDIA AND COMMUNITY LIFE
Fall, 2006
Tue 1:30-4:30 (Room ASC 318)
Prof. Keith Hampton
Office Hours: Thursdays 12:00-1:30 (Room ASC 327)
TA : Oren Livio
Email : olivio@asc.upenn.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This upper level course provides
an overview of recent research on the social implications of new media. The
focus is on how recent technological innovations, including personal computing,
the Internet and mobile phones may be changing the way we interact with our
environments and those around us. This seminar takes students beyond basic
questions of “are virtual communities real communities?” and “does the Internet
destroy or save community?” to an in depth discussion of how networks of
community relations are maintained and transformed on and offline as a result
of new media. The course is based around the argument that computer networks
are inherently social networks, linking people, organizations and communities. This
subject is heavily weighted towards the evaluation of empirical studies, the
use of social network analysis, and studies that address sociological research
questions. Students will learn to critically examine the impact of new media on
society through in-depth seminars and independent research.
REQUIREMENTS
Students are not expected to
have personal experience with the technologies discussed in this course. A
major component of the course will involve the development and use of a
personal blog. Students will receive access to the necessary blogging software
and will be provided with basic instruction on how to maintain a blog.
Final grades will be based on
an evaluation of 10 blog postings on the subject of the weekly course readings
(30%), 20 comments on other students’ blog postings (20%), six assignments (40%),
and class participation (10%). Students are urged to pay close attention to due
dates, late assignments will not be accepted.
Course readings and
participation: Students are expected
to have read the week’s readings in advance of the course meeting. Class meetings
will be in a seminar format and students should be prepared to participate in a
discussion based on the topic and readings of the week.
Blog Postings: Students are responsible for submitting short
commentaries on 10 of the weeks’ readings (300-500 words). Commentaries should focus
on all of the readings from each week and should consist of limited summary;
focusing on an evaluation of the readings and identifying 2-3 questions
for discussion during the class meeting (focus on the papers’ key issues, strengths
and limitations, and a comparison to previous weeks’ readings). Each
commentary should be submitted as a post to the student’s personal class blog by
10:00am on the Saturday before the class meeting. To be clear, students
should post commentaries to their blog on the Saturday before the topic is
discussed in class.
Blog Comments:
Each student is responsible for contributing comments to fellow students’ blogs.
Comments should be a minimum of 125 words and offer a critique of that week’s
posting, seek clarification, compare or contrast postings, or provide
additional evidence or new information (such as a link to a related article,
website, etc.). Each student must contribute a minimum of 20 comments, credit
will be given for a maximum of two comments each week, students cannot
comment on the same blog more than three times over the duration of the course.
Comments must be posted by 8:00am on the day of class for posts related to
that week’s readings.
Assignments: Students are
responsible for completing all six of the following assignments. The following
are intended as brief outlines of each assignment, detailed instructions will
be provided in class and supporting material will be posted to the class
Blackboard website.
1) Important Matters
(5%), Handout: September 19, Due: October 3. Listen to the radio interview
featuring Prof. Lynn Smith-Lovin (
2) Internet Addiction
(10%), Handout: September 26, Due: October 10. Administer Young’s Internet
Addiction test and short demographic survey to 20 people. Compile your results
and complete the age and gender cross-tabs as outlined on the project handout.
Write a blog posting (750-1000 words) discussing the interview process and your
findings. Bring the project hand out to class, meet with your small group, combine
your results using the group handout and make a short 5 minute group
presentation explaining your findings.
3) Time-Use (5%),
Handout: October 10, Due: October 17. Complete the one-day time use diary
starting at 4:00am on any weekday. Compile your results using the project handout.
Write a blog posting (500-750 words) discussing your findings. Bring the
project handout and completed diary to class, meet with your small group,
combine your results using the group handout and make a short 5 minute group
presentation explaining your findings.
4) Public Space (10%),
Handout: October 17, Due: October 31. This project involves ethnographic
observations of media use in public spaces. You must spend a total of 5 hours
(2˝ hours on a weekday and 2˝ hours on a weekend) at one of the following
locations: 30th Street Station, Rittenhouse Square, The Last Drop
coffee house (1300 Pine St), Starbucks at Centre Square (1500 Market Street).
Draw a diagram of the space. Make detailed notes of how people use electronic devices
in this space. Write a blog posting (1250-2000 words) discussing your findings.
Bring the project handout and observation notes to class. Meet with your small
group, discuss your findings, and make a short 5 minute group presentation
explaining your findings.
5) Privacy (5%),
Handout: November 7, Due: November 14. Choose one of the following websites:
Amazon, Google, MySpace. Research the company that operates the website you
selected and compile a list of other websites and companies owned/operated by
the same corporation. Find resources that identify what information this
company collects and tracks from its customers/users. What if any privacy
concerns do you have about this website and the company that operates it? Write
a blog posting (500-750 words) discussing your findings.
6) Surveillance
(5%), Handout: November 21, Due: December 5. This project involves identifying
and mapping all video cameras directed into public spaces within
COURSE MATERIALS
https://courseweb.library.upenn.edu/
Handouts, information on
assignments, and other announcements will be available from the course blog:
http://www.mysocialnetwork.net/blog/410
\
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1 (September 12) – Course intro / Blogging intro
/ What is community?
Week 2 (September 19) – The future of community in the age of the Internet.
Singer, Jennifer. (1995, December 31).
“Personal Perspective: Finding Community Through the Internet.”
Meyrowitz, J. (1997).
Shifting Worlds of Strangers: Medium Theory and Changes in "Them"
Versus "Us". Sociological Inquiry, 67(1), 59-71.
Rheingold, H. (1993).
A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community. In L. M. Harasim (Ed.), Global
Networks: Computers and International Communication (pp. 37-80).
Turner, Fred. (2005). Where the Counterculture Met the
New Economy: The WELL and the Origins of Virtual Community. Technology and
Culture, 46(3), 485-512.
Week 3 (September 26) – Is community in decline? Is the Internet to blame?
Putnam, Robert. (2001). “Social Capital Measurement
and Consequences.” Canadian Journal of Policy Research 2(1):41-51.
McPherson, M.,
Smith-Lovin, L., & Brashears, M. E. (2006). Social Isolation in
Kraut,
R., Lunmark, V., Patterson, M., Kiesler, S., Mukopadhyay, T., & Scherlis,
W. (1998). “Internet Paradox: A Social Technology That Reduces Social
Involvement and Psychological Well-Being?”
In American Psychologist 53(9):
1017-1031.
Nie, N., Hillygus, S.,
& Erbring, L. (2002). Internet Use, Interpersonal Relations and
Sociability: A Time Diary Study. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.),
The Internet in Everyday Life (pp. 215-243).
Week 4 (October 3) – The decline of community II
Wieland, D. M. (2005).
Computer Addiction: Implications for Nursing Psychotherapy Practice. Perspectives
in Psychiatric Care, 41(4), 153-161.
Kraut, R., Kiesler,
S., Boneva, B., Cummings, J., Helgeson, V., & Crawford, A. (2002). Internet
Paradox Revisited. Journal of Social Issues, 58(1), 49-74.
Wellman, Barry and
Milena Gulia. (1999). “Net-Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as
Communities.” Pp. 331-366 in Networks in
the Global Village, edited by Barry Wellman.
Week
5 (October 10) – Community saved? Or at least not lost?
Robinson, John, Meyer
Kestnbaum, Alan Neustadtl and Anthony Alvarez (2002). “The Internet and Other
Uses of Time.” In Barry Wellman and
Caroline Haythornthwaite, The Internet in Everyday Life. Blackwell.
Quan-Haase, Anabel, Barry Wellman, James
Witte, and Keith Hampton (2002). “Capitalizing on the Net: Social Contact,
Civic Engagement and Sense of Community.” in Barry Wellman and Caroline
Haythornthwaite, The Internet in Everyday Life. Blackwell.
Baym, N., Zhang, Y.
B., & Lin, M.-C. (2004). Social Interactions Across Media: Interpersonal
Communication on the Internet, Telephone and Face-to-Face. New Media &
Society, 6(3), 299-318.
Week 6 (October 17) – Public
realm
Goldberger, Paul. (2003, November). “Disconnected
Urbanism: The Cell Phone Has Changed Our Sense of Place More Than Faxes,
Computers, and E-Mail.” Metropolis Magazine.
Ling, Rich. (2002). “The Social Juxtaposition of Mobile
Telephone Conversations and Public Spaces.” Presented at the conference on the
social consequences of mobile telephones.
Ling, Rich. (1997). “One Can Talk About Common Manners!:
The use of Mobile Telephones in Inappropriate Situations.” In Haddon, L (ed). Themes in
Hampton, Keith and Neeti
Gupta (forthcoming). Grande Wi-Fi: Social Interaction in Wireless Coffee Shops.
Week 7 (October 24) -
Week 8 (October 31) – Parochial realm.
Hampton, Keith and Barry Wellman. (2003). “Neighboring in
Netville: How the Internet Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired
Suburb.” City and Community 2(4),
277-311.
Hampton, Keith (forthcoming). e-Neighbors: Neighborhoods in the Network Society. Information, Communication and Society.
Servon, L., & Pinkett, R. (2004). Narrowing the
Digital Divide: The Potential and Limits of the
Week 9 (November
7) – The next generation (this means you).
Farrell ,
Mesch, G., &
Talmud,
Ling, R., & Yttri,
B. (2006). Control, Emancipation, and Status. In R. Kraut, M. Brynin &
Ito, M., & Okabe,
D. (2006). Intimate Connections. In R. Kraut, M. Brynin &
Week 10 (November 14) - “Social Network” Websites
Verini, J. (2006,
March). Will Success Spoil MySpace.com. Vanity Fair.
Ellison, N.,
Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2006). Spatially Bounded Online Social
Networks and Social Capital: The Role of Facebook, Annual Conference of the
International Communication Association.
Gross, R., &
Acquisti, A. (2005). Information Revelation and Privacy in Online Social
Networks. Paper presented at the ACM Workshop on privacy in the Electronic
Society,
Week 11 (November 21) – Public Surveillance
Lyon, David (2003). “Surveillance in the
City.” In Steve Graham (ed.), The Cybercities Reader.
Green, Nicola (2001). “Who's Watching Whom? Monitoring
and Accountability” in Mobile Relations, Wireless World: Social and
Interactional Aspects of the
Curry, M., Phillips,
D., & Regan, P. (2004). Emergency Response Systems and the Creeping
Legibility of People and Places. The Information Society, 20, 357-369.
Zetter, K. (2005,
April 15). Surveillance Works Both Ways. Wired News.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/1,67216-0.html
Holson, L. (2006,
April 5). Disney Phone Service Has Parents in Mind. New York Times.
Week 12 (November 28) – Gaming
Chan, E., &
Vorderer, P. (2006). Massively Multiplayer Online Games. In P. Vorderer &
J. Bryant (Eds.), Playing Video Games (pp. 77-113).
Jenkins, Henry (1999).
Testimony before the
http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/0504jen.pdf
Lee, K. M., &
Peng, W. (2006). What Do We Know About Social and Psychological Effects of
Computer Games? A Comprehensive Review of the Current Literature. In P.
Vorderer & J. Bryant (Eds.), Playing Video Games (pp. 327-345).
Williams,
Dmitri (2005). “Groups and Goblins: The Social and Civic Impact of Online
Gaming”. Working paper.
Week 13 (December 5) – Social movements
Peretti, Jonah. (2001). Culture
Jamming, Memes, Social Networks, and the Emerging Media Ecology. The Nike
Sweatshop Email as Object-to-Think-With. Peretti Media Online. http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/polcommcampaigns/peretti.html
Vegh,
Sandor. (2002). “Hacktivists or
Cyberterrorists? The Changing Media Discourse on Hacking.” First Monday 7(10). http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/vegh/index.html