Course Outline

This course focuses on the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly social media, on our social and political lives. What are the cultural and political aspects, conditions, and consequences of the network technologies that we’ve come to take for granted in our lives, perhaps to the extent that we cannot imagine life without them?

Learning Objectives

I hope that by the end of this course, you will feel comfortable

-       Describing the material, social and political infrastructures that enable digital communication in contemporary society.

-       Considering the conditions for individual privacy and liberty as well as a collective action on the commercial internet, and

-       Thinking, writing, and speaking up critically about internet culture generally as well as particular platforms and interfaces.