Extra Credit Projects!

Two Options:

Option 1:

RECRUITMENT E-MAIL TO PARENTS TO BE POSTED ON COURSE BLACKBOARD SITES/E-MAILED TO STUDENTS

Students, please copy and paste the text below into an e-mail to the parent you’d like to participate in the study. Please include your code in the message, too!

Hello,

I am writing from the University of Denver because your child has nominated you to participate in a research study for which he or she will earn extra credit in a class. The study asks about your work and family experiences and attitudes at the time that your child last lived at home with you, and it will take about 15 minutes to complete. Your child will be completing his or her own version of this questionnaire. Please consider helping us with this project!

The study can be found online at: https://udenver.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8umnT8bJMhjU94p

The code to enter to participate is: XXXXXX

If you have any questions about this study, please contact Dr. Mary Claire Morr Serewicz at Mary.Serewicz@du.edu.

Option 2:

Read and present on the following article:

http://www.laweekly.com/music/why-cds-may-actually-sound-better-than-vinyl-5352162 

Prezi 1.26.14

Conceptual Speed Dating

Conceptual Speed Dating

• Inner circle/outer circle
• Each Pair gets 4 minutes
• Each person must take turns explaining their proposal, and alternatively contributing suggestions to their partner about the following:

1. How to refine the topic
2. How to apply the topic to the two remaining mid-quarter assignments
1. Wikipedia Assignment: Contribute at least one piece of cited information to a Wikipedia page that you find lacking. We will be going over how to edit Wikipedia in class, but it is your responsibility to ensure that your information maintains academic integrity through verifiably cited sources.
2. Remix Assignment: Create an original expression of ideas/feelings/beliefs using appropriated piece(s) of media - this can be songs, videos, images, text, etc. 
3. Ideas for advocacy campaign, including action created for other digital citizens to take on behalf of your issue/topic

• Gong will ring at 2 minutes - conclude your discussion and begin talking about the other participant’s project
• 15 seconds to switch partners - inner circle will move clockwise one chair
• Repeat - you will end up doing this process with 4 different people

1.21.15 Prezi

Final Project Proposal (Assignment)

This assignment is a chance for you to make a case for an issue, problem, phenomenon, question or other interest that can be explored through an analysis of digital/virtual communication. This topic will culminate at the end of the quarter with the Digital Advocacy project. Please prepare 400-500 words on: 

a.) the topic and its background (20 pts); 
b.) how your understanding of the topic has been enhanced by the class’s study of digital communication (hint - use of glossary terminology is a plus!) (20 pts); 
c.) how the topic might be treated (differently) through either a technological determinist lens or a social constructionist lens (this may hint at which side of the spectrum you come down on, but be open to exploring both) (20 pts);
d.) your vision for creating a future Digital Advocacy campaign (be sure to include how you can invite other digital citizens to take action on behalf of this issue through your campaign) (20 pts);

*Writing style (including grammar, spelling, etc) and correct format of citations are worth 20 pts.

Due 1.26.15 by 11:59pm (in hard copy or digital via email)

1.12.15 Prezi

1.12.15 Prezi

Meme Lineage Report (Assignment)

Meme Lineage Report (100 pts): Find an internet meme (this can be of humorous/political/activist/serious nature) and research the possible origins/influential forces or ideas as well as its impacts/imitations. A good place to start is www.knowyourmeme.com. Note not only the shaping forces or iterations that took place within the digital public sphere, but also those that took place offline. This is especially important when looking at originating factors of memes, because memes are often a product of historical/political/cultural artifacts or events that took place long before digital technology existed.

• Written Report (50 pts): 750-1000 words on: Historical/Political/Cultural Origins; Emergence within the Digital Sphere; and Online/Offline Iterations and Impacts
• 10 pts - Comprehensive report of meme's origin
• 10 pts - Correct identification of digital platforms that distributed the meme
• 10 pts - Understanding of how online and offline cultures converge
• 10 pts - Correct/consistent citation of sources (can be any citation style, but see https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/10/ for APA guide)
• 10 pts - Conclusion that includes one or more of the following: a.) why it matters; b.) how your report relates to larger themes of the class; c.) how it relates to the technological determinism v. social construction debate
• In-Class Presentation (50 pts): 5 minute overview of the meme’s lineage, using at least one instance of visual communication (i.e. diagram, chart, timeline, link, video, still image)
• 10 pts - Comprehensive report of meme's origin
• 10 pts - Correct identification of digital platforms that distributed the meme
• 10 pts - Understanding of how online and offline cultures converge
• 10 pts - Conclusion that includes one or more of the following: a.) why it matters; b.) how your report relates to larger themes of the class; c.) how it relates to the technological determinism v. social construction debate
• 10 pts - Effective use of visual aids

Group Presentation Schedule

Date & Topic	Presenter 1	Presenter 2	Presenter 3
1.12 - Podcast: “WWI and the Birth of Public Relations,” CBC	Gaia Altshuler	Rachael Frantz	Sarah Tornatzky
1.14 - Blog: “A Hundred Walked out of my Lecture on Memes,” Susan Blackmore	Cassidy Rey	Oliver Brown
1.21a - Article: “Attention Shoppers! The currency of the New Economy won't be money, but attention,” Wired	Yuanuan Cai	Pengfei Ji
1.21b - Podcast: “Interview with Michael Lewis, author of Flash Boys,” NPR	Taylor Stimpson	Yvonne Pham
1.28 - Article: “Critical Glitches and Glitch Art,” Hz Journal	Madeleine Alvarado	Katherine Wadley
2.4 - Chapter: “Searching for the Origami Unicorn: The Matrix and Transmedia Storytelling,” Henry Jenkins	Fritz Tappe	Max Robertson
2.9 - Excerpt: “Visual Economy,” from The Cinematic Mode of Production, Jonathan Beller (p. 19-24)	Bea Willemsen	Michael Gooch	Emily Krebs
2.11 - Excerpt: “Marshall McLuhan and the Cultural Medium,” from Understanding Media Cultures, Nick Stevenson (p. 121-128)	Highland Barry	Nick Hazard
3.2 - Chapter: “Virtual Body Modification: Embodiment, Identity and Non-Conforming Avatars,” Mary Kosut	Dannie McCullough	Sarah Chun
3.4 - Article: “@Dronestream: Defining the Contours of our Drone War,” Kate Hoyt	Emma Kaplan	John Seydel

Prezi - 1.5.15

Class Glossary

This is a living document to which we will be adding and editing throughout the quarter; it includes key terminology relevant to our discussions surrounding Comm in the Digital Age.

Technological Determinism: a theory that presumes that a society's technology drives/controls the development of its culture.

Social Constructionist Theory of Technology (social constructionism): a theory that argues that technology does not determine human action, but that rather, human action shapes technology.

Post-Humanism: The belief that advances in technology will render humans obsolete (falls under the theory of Technological Determinism).

Meme: a "unit of culture" (an idea, belief, pattern of behavior, etc.) which is "hosted" in the minds of one or more individuals, and which can reproduce itself, thereby jumping from mind to mind.

Disruptive Innovation: technological developments that completely change/replace old systems (of economy, cultural production, information, etc.)

Attention Economy: an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems.

Discrete 
1. apart or detached from others; separate; distinct
2. consisting of or characterized by distinct or individual parts; discontinuous.

Signal: the content of the intended message

Noise: information that is included in transmission of the signal that exists outside of the intended message

Simulacrum: a copy without an original; concept produced by Baudrillard. A way to understand the shift in digital culture from "art imitates life" to "art imitates art." Another way to talk about how media becomes embedded in our reality.

Transmedia: media that becomes embedded in other media ("remediation")

Digital Divide:  economic and social inequality according to categories of persons in a given population in their access to, use of, or knowledge of information and communication technologies