CMS.901
Current Debates in Media
Addresses important, current debates in media with in-depth discussion of popular perceptions and policy implications. Students use multiple perspectives to analyze texts emanating from these debates, and present their findings through discussions and reports. Explores emerging topics (e.g., piracy and IP regimes, net neutrality, media effects, social media and social change, and changing literacies) across media forms and from various historical, transcultural, and methodological perspectives. Examines the framing of these issues, their ethical and policy implications, and strategies for repositioning the debate. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Spring 2015
Topics
- Introduction
- Ideologies, Stereotypes and Agency
- Propaganda, Censorship and Net Neutrality
- Violence in Media and Video Games
- From Big Data to Big Brother: Surveillance and Privacy in the Information Age
- Digital Hacktivism, Civil Disobedience and Piracy
- GamerGate Controversy
- Socialization and Intimacy in Digital Environments
- One-on-one Appointments to Discuss the Final Paper
- Collective Intelligence versus the Expert Paradigm
- Participatory Culture, Intellectual Property and Media Panic
- Artificial Intelligence, Posthumanism and Technological Apocalypse Dissertation due
Readings
- SES #: 1 · TOPICS: Introduction · READINGS: No readings assigned.
- Herman, Edward S., and Noah Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media . Pantheon, 2002. ISBN: 9780375714498. (Introduction pages only.)
- Stiegler, Zack, and John Anderson. Regulating the Web: Network Neutrality and the Fate of the Open Internet . Lexington Books, 2014. ISBN: 9780739197639.
- Huesmann, L. Rowell, and Laramie D. Taylor. “Exposure to Violence in the Media Leads to Violent Behavior.” In Media Violence . Greenhaven, 2008. ISBN: 9780737742190.
- Jenkins, Henry. “The Problem of Media Violence is Exaggerated.” In Media Violence . Greenhaven, 2008. ISBN: 9780737742190.
- Bickham, David S. “Video Games Foster Violent Behavior.” In Media Violence . Greenhaven, 2008. ISBN: 9780737742190.
- Ferguson, Christopher J. “Video Games Have Become a Scapegoat for Violent Behavior.” In Media Violence . Greenhaven, 2008. ISBN: 9780737742190.
- Bollier, David. The Promise and Peril of Big Data . The Aspen Institute, 2010. ISBN: 9780898435160.
- Coleman, Gabriella. Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous . Verso, 2014. ISBN: 9781781685839.
- Wolfson, Todd. Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left . University of Illinois Press, 2014, pp. 181–94. ISBN: 9780252038846.
- Gerbaudo, Paolo. Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism . Pluto Press, 2012, pp. 1–17. ISBN: 9780745332482.
- Richard, Gabriela T. “Gender and Gameplay.” In Playing with Virtuality: Theories and Methods of Computer Game Studies . Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2013. ISBN: 9783631640609.
- Shaw, Adrienne. Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture . University Of Minnesota Press, 2014, pp. 1–11.
- Zichermann, Gabe, and Joselin Linder. The Gamification Revolution: How Leaders Leverage Game Mechanics to Crush the Competition . McGraw-Hill Education, 2013, pp. 11–17. ISBN: 9780071808316.
- Deterding, Sebastian. “Eudaimonic Design, or: Six invitations to Rethink Gamification.” In Rethinking Gamification . Meson Press by Hybrid, 2014, pp. 305–23. ISBN: 9783957960009.
- Schrape, Niklas. “Gamification and Governmentality.” In Rethinking Gamification. Meson Press by Hybrid, 2014. ISBN: 9783957960009.
- Bonenfant, Maude. “Pour un changement de paradigme.” In Socialisation et communication dans les jeux vidéo . 2011. ISBN: 9782760622678.
- Bonenfant, Maude, and Yanick Farmer. “Je suis libre moi non plus.” In Mobilisation de l’objet technique dans la production de soi . Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2013. ISBN: 9782760536463.
- Lambert, Alexander. Intimacy and Friendship on Facebook . Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 8–28. ISBN: 9781137322845.
- SES #: 11 · TOPICS: One-on-one Appointments to Discuss the Final Paper · READINGS: No new readings assigned.
- Lévy, Pierre. Collective Intelligence: Mankind’s Emerging World in Cyberspace . Plenum Trade, 1997. ISBN: 9780306456350.
- Marwic, Alice. “The Fabulous Lives of Micro-Celebrities.” In Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age . Yale University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780300176728.
- Burgess, Jean, and Joshua Green. “YouTube’s Popular Culture.” In YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture . Polity, 2009, pp. 38–52. ISBN: 9780745644790.
- McLuhan, Marshall. The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects . Bantam, 1967.
- Baudrillard, Jean. Symbolic Exchange and Death (Theory, Culture & Society) . Sage Publications, 1993. ISBN: 9780803983991.
Prerequisites & course information
Subject meets with CMS.701 Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2015
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.