Cyber-communications:
Communications and Learning Technologies in Contemporary Society
Information Studies 244F
September-December 1998
Instructor: Dr. Nick Dyer-Witheford
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This course explores the growing importance of computer-mediated
communication in contemporary culture. Topics include: the history of computer-mediated
communication; the nature of cyberspace; Internet demographics; virtual
communities and their discontents; telework; electronic surveillance and
cryptography ; law and order on the electronic frontier; digital dissent
and censorship; and the significance of the networks for human--or post-human--evolution.
In particular, this semester's course focuses on the Internet and the so-called
information highway as arenas of techno-struggle, where different communities--the
military, multinational corporations, law enforcement agents, criminals,
civil libertarians, and a multitude of social movements--pursue conflicting
agendas within the matrix of the planet's most powerful communications
network.
Note: This is a study of the social issues arising from
computer-communication, not a "how to" course on using the Internet. No
one has to be a computer expert to do well. However, you will be expected
to already have, or rapidly acquire, a basic on-line literacy i.e. know
how to sign on to your university computer account, send and receive email,
and search the World Wide Web.
For more information, see the Course
Description
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS
Week 1 (Sep. 14): Introduction.
Reading: Friedman, "Introduction."
Week 2 (Sep. 21): Cyberspace.
Reading: Friedman, Chapter 1.
Week 3 (Sep. 28): Command
& Control: The Military Origins. Reading: Friedman, Chapter
2.
Week 4 (Oct. 5): Virtual
Communities? Reading: Friedman, Chapter 3 & Howard
Rheingold, "A Slice of Life in My Virtual Community."
Week 5 (Oct. 12): Thanksgiving Holiday
Week 6 (Oct. 19): Labour
in Cyberspace: Telework Reading: Friedman, Chapter 7.
Week 7 (Oct. 26): Big
Brother & Little Brother: Dataveillence. Reading: David Lyon,
"From Big Brother to Electronic Panopticon."
Week 8 (Nov. 2): Hackers
& Cypherpunks. Reading: Friedman, Chapter 6
Week 9 (Nov. 9):
Cyberporn and Censorship. Reading: Friedman, Chapter 8.
Week 10 (Nov. 16): Net-Nazis:
Hatespeak. Reading, Friedman, Chapter 5.
Week 11 (Nov. 23): Info-Wars:
Virtual Zapatistas. Reading: Friedman, Chapter 4.
Week 12 (Nov. 30): Cyborgs
and Neo-Luddites. Reading: Friedman, Chapter 9.
Week 13 (Dec. 7) Conclusions: Virtual Class.
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