| Learning objectives |
- Explore the historical, theoretical and methodological
underpinnings of research relevant to cultural analysis of
contemporary digitally-enabled economies
- Develop an understanding of the process and outputs of a
cultural analysis
- Recognise the key characteristics of qualitative digital
research methods
- Examine methods of conducting and analysing qualitative digital
research
- Understand what is involved in writing up and presenting
research findings in an appropriate manner
- Plan and design a coherent analysis of a given topic in Digital
Culture from start to finish
|
| Examination |
|
Digital
Cultures:
|
| Exam
ECTS |
15 |
| Examination form |
Oral exam based on written product
In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product
must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The
grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and
the individual oral performance, see also the rules about
examination forms in the programme regulations. |
| Individual or group exam |
Individual oral exam based on written group
product |
| Number of people in the group |
2-3 |
| Size of written product |
Max. 10 pages |
|
The written part of the exam can be taken
individually or in groups of 2-3 students. |
| Assignment type |
Synopsis |
| Duration |
Written product to be submitted on specified date and
time.
30 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade,
and informing plus explaining the grade |
| Grading scale |
7-point grading scale |
| Examiner(s) |
Internal examiner and second internal
examiner |
| Exam period |
Summer |
| Make-up exam/re-exam |
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
|
Description of the exam
procedure
The written part of the exam can be taken individually or
in groups of 2-3
students.
|
|
| Course content, structure and pedagogical
approach |
|
This course introduces students to theoretical and
methodological appraoches to digital culture, focusing
on digitally-enabled platform economies and their
cultural and social dynamics and micro-level interactions.
The course mobilizes theoretical insights from media and
communication studies, science and technology studies
(STS), anthropology, cultural studies and economic
sociology to articulate how digital technology’s affordances,
infrastructures and social imaginaries influence and shape consumer
cultures, values and worldviews.
The course includes topics such as gig labour, attention
economies, sharing economies,
blockchain-based infrastructures, algorithmic cultures,
digital rights perspectives and emerging digital cultures.
It introduces students to established and emerging digital
methods including digital ethnography, digital historiography
and social media analysis.
|
| Description of the teaching methods |
| We will be covering digital research in a dynamic
learning environment consisting of lectures, guided class
discussions and methodological experimentation. |
| Feedback during the teaching period |
| Feedback will be given continuously in class
setting and through peer-to-peer feedback sessions guided by the
lecturer. |
| Student workload |
| Lectures and exercises |
60 hours |
| Preparation for classes |
352 hours |
| Total |
412 hours |
|
| Expected literature |
|
Example literature:
- McLuhan, M. (1964). The medium is the message. In:
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.
https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/mcluhan.mediummessage.pdf
- Jessica Ogden (2022) “Everything on the internet can be saved”:
Archive Team, Tumblr and the cultural significance of web
archiving, Internet Histories, 6:1-2, 113-132.
- Nieborg, D. B., & Poell, T. (2018). The platformization of
cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity.
New Media & Society, 20(11), 4275–4292.
-
Keywords in remix studies. Routledge.
- Livingstone, S. (2019). Audiences in an age of datafication:
Critical questions for media research. Television & New
Media, 20(2), 170-183.
- Baym, N. K. (1998). The emergence of on-line community. In
Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and
Community, 35-68.
-
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the
Relationship Between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture.
MIT Press.
-
Dependent, Distracted, Bored: Affective Formations in
Networked Media. MIT Press.
- Gran, A. B., Booth, P., & Bucher, T. (2021). To be or not
to be algorithm aware: a question of a new digital divide?.
Information, Communication & Society, 24(12),
1779-1796.
-
Buy Now: How Amazon Branded Convenience and Normalized
Monopoly. The MIT Press.
- Zuboff, S. (2019, January). Surveillance capitalism and the
challenge of collective action. In New labor forum (Vol. 28, No. 1,
pp. 10-29). SAGE Publications.
-
Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation,
and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social Media. Yale
University Press.
- Steedman R, Kennedy H and Jones R (2020) Complex ecologies of
trust in data practices and data-driven systems. Information,
Communication & Society 23(6): 817–832.
- Anwar MA and Graham M (2020) Hidden transcripts of the gig
economy: labour agency and the new art of resistance among African
gig workers. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
52(7): 1269–1291.
- Caplan, R., & Boyd, D. (2016). Who controls the public
sphere in an era of algorithms. Mediation, Automation,
Power, 1-19.
-
Optimal Motherhood and Other Lies Facebook Told Us.
The MIT Press.
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