ASTU 400F – Democracy and Development in the Age of the Internet and New Media
Course Co-ordinators: Caroline Durran (carolinedurran89@hotmail.com) and Alex Bookbinder (bookie4@gmail.com)
Faculty Sponsors: Alfred Hermida (alfred.hermida@ubc.ca) and Candis Callison (candisc@interchange.ubc.ca), Faculty of Journalism
Assignments/Marks Breakdown
10% participation (attendance, quality of discussion generated, choice of readings/
materials, and preparation)
• 3% for attendance (if more than one class missed, lose the 3%)
• remaining 7% based on two peer evaluations at mid-point and end-of-semester. Rubric to be created collaboratively on Day 1.
- 10% weekly reading responses (half-page summaries/reflections on points of interest or contention in the weekly readings). Marked for completion (1% per response)
- 20% facilitation of one class presentation/discussion (in pairs)
- 25% One 1800 to 2000-word paper. The paper assignment will require participants to pick a contemporary political event (i.e. an election), and come up with a relevant analysis of how the internet and new media has impacted that event, using course readings and any other available research. Due in Week 6 (5% draft peer review, 20% final)
- 35% One final, collaborative project, intended to be a practical, hands-on exploration andimplementation of what we’ve covered throughout the course. This will involve both a written and creative component, for example, creating a blog to follow a certain issue, video project etc. Due/presented in final class
Description and Objectives:
By the end of the course, students will
- Have a strong conceptual understanding of media and information flows, and how they affect and are affected by various political and economic contexts
- Be able to challenge and analyze a variety of viewpoints on the topic
- Create an original, innovative project based on themes from the course material.
Week One: Welcome to course, logistics/admin stuff, syllabus
◦ Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace
◦ Syllabus overview
◦ Create rubrics
◦ Assign/schedule presentations
Week Two: Introduction
◦ Information/media flows
▪ Schudson, Michael (2003), “Click here for democracy: a history and
critique of an information-based model of citizenship.” Democracy
and new media. Eds. Henry Jenkins, David Thorburn and Brad
Seawell. Cambridge: MIT Press. 49-60.
▪ Dean, Jodi (2005), “Communicative Capitalism: Circulation and the
Foreclosure of Politics.” Cultural Politics: an International Journal,
Volume 1, Number 1, March 2005 , pp. 51-74(24) (Will Email)
▪ Benkler, Yochai (2006), “Political Freedom Part 1: The Trouble with
Mass Media”, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production
Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yale University Press 2006 (Will
Email)
▪ Callison, Candis. “The Fate of Truth in Journalism.” First published in
Nexus, November 2009 no. 53.
◦ Global Penetration of the Internet (2009 Report) (Akamai)
Week Three: Information Poverty/Digital Divide
◦ Pippa Norris readings *chapter 1 and 4*
◦ The New Imperialism and Africa in the Global Economic Village (Y. Z. Y’au)
PDF link on google docs
▪ Van Dijk- The Digital Divide in Europe
◦ MIT Poverty Lab
Week Four: Internet and Development
◦ The Internet and Socio-economic development: Exploring the
interaction (Shirin Madon London School of
Economics)http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/191/
◦ Expanding internet access in Africa and how it will impact development
(Charles Kenny World Bank reading)Internet Access in Africa Reading (must
be logged into VPN to connect)
◦ Allen Hammond- Digitally Empowered Development Allen Hammond
reading (must be logged into VPN to access)
Week Five: Crowdsourcing: Impacts on the response to humanitarian crises/conflict
◦ Using the internet to reunite refugees in post-conflict situation (RefUnite)
◦ New Media and news distribution in crisis scenarios (video)
◦ Ushahidi: Crowdsourcing Crisis Information
◦ Social Networks and Information Systems to Handle Emergency and
Reconstruction in Natural Disasters: the L’Aquila Earthquake Case Study
Week Six: Diasporas/Insurgencies/Terrorism/Crime **ESSAY DRAFT DUE IN CLASS**
◦ Op/Ed: Ronald Deibert: Breaking up the Dark Clouds in Cyberspace
◦ The Internet and the Zapatista Movement in Mexico: Digital Zapatistas (must be logged into VPN)
◦ The Importance of the Internet to the Post-Modern Terrorist and its Role as a Form of Safe Haven (David H. Gray)
◦ Mark P. Whitaker: Tamilnet.com: Some Reflections on Popular Anthropology, Nationalism, and the Internet
Week Seven: Intro to the Blogosphere/Social Media World **ESSAY DUE**
◦ Clay Shirky Ted Talk
◦ Woodly: New competencies in democratic communication? Blogs,
agenda setting and political participation
◦ Munger: Blogging and political information: truth or truthiness?
Week Eight: Democratic Engagement
◦ Guest Lecture: Dr. Max Cameron (Blogging of 2006 Peruvian
Election)
◦ ‘Bloggers On the Bus’ Excerpt from book (focuses on the role of
blogging during the 2008 Obama campaign)
◦ Deborah Wheeler: Empowering publics: Information Technology and
democratization in the Arab World—Lessons from Internet cafés and beyond
◦ Technology for Transparency: Tracking civic engagement technology
online
Week Nine: Internet and Authoritarian Regimes: Internet censorship
◦ OpenNet Initiative country reports: http://opennet.net/research/profiles
◦ Ronald Diebert: Firewalls and Power:An Overview of Global State
Censorship of the Internet
◦ Joshua Teitelbaum: Dueling for “Da’wa”: State vs. Society on the Saudi
Internet
Week Ten: The Internet in China
◦ David Talbot: China’s Internet Paradox
◦ Rebecca MacKinnon: Flatter World and Thicker Walls? Blogs, Censorship
and Civic Discourse in China
◦ Human Rights Watch: How Internet Censorship Works in China: A Brief
Overview
◦ G. Elijah Dann & Neil Haddow: Just Doing Business or Doing Just
Business: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! And the Business of Censoring China’s
Internet
Week Eleven: Popular mass movements in Authoritarian Regimes
◦ Guest Lecture (Tentative) on political participation in Iran
◦ OpenNet Initiative: Pulling the Plug: A Technical Review of the Internet
Shutdown in Burma
◦ Dorothy Denning: Cyberwarriors: Activism and Terrorism in Iran
◦ Joshua Goldstein:The Role of Digital Networked Technologies in the
Ukrainian Orange Revolution
Week Twelve: Presentations of Final Projects/Wrap Up
