COM300 meets 4.30-6.50, Mo and We in CMU302
- Readings at the bottom of this page; reading posts are due 9 am Monday each week
Week 1: Introduction – What are “New Media”?
Monday 5 Jan : Wednesday 7 Jan
Week 2: Evolution of Digital Communication
Monday 12 Jan : Wednesday 14 Jan
Week 3: Finding and Evaluating Online Communications
Monday 19 Jan (holiday but reading still due today!) : Wednesday 21 Jan
Week 4: Human-Computer Interaction
Monday 26 Jan : Wednesday 28 Jan (lab)
First Essay Due Fri 30 January @ 9 pm
Week 5: Networks – Social and Technological
Monday 2 Feb : Wednesday 4 Feb
Peer Group 1 Will Be Discussion Leaders on Wed
Week 6: Online News
Monday 9 Feb : Wednesday 11 Feb (lab)
Peer Group 2 Will Be Discussion Leaders on Mon
Second Essay Due Fri 13 February
Week 7: Online Politics
Monday 16 Feb (holiday but reading still due!) : Wednesday 18 Feb
Peer Group 3 Will Be Discussion Leaders on Wed
Week 8: Online Commerce
Monday 23 Feb : Wednesday 25 Feb
Peer Group 4 Will Be Discussion Leaders on Mon
Week 9: Access and Digital Divide
Monday 2 Mar : Wednesday 4 Mar (lab)
Peer Group 5 Will Be Discussion Leaders on Mon
Third Essay Due Fri 6 March @ 9 pm
Week 10: Emerging Technologies and Wrap-Up
Monday 9 Mar : Wednesday 11 Mar (with lab)
Week 11: Finals Week
There is no final exam.
Final essay due, via Collect-It, 9 pm Wednesday, 18 March
Students are asked to reflect upon readings to help gain cognitive understanding of material as well as to hone analytical skills. Weekly assignments are not graded, except for completeness. Be sure to check your spelling and grammar, however! Remember to generate three discussion questions as part of your weekly reading reflection. Assignments are due at 9am Monday each week.
Resource: How to perform a close reading (pdf).
Each regular weekly reading should be categorized as “reading”. Each extra credit reading should be categorized “extra credit”. More details below the reading list. Readings without links are located in eReserve.
This reading list is tentative and will be finalized after the first week of class.
- Readings Due Monday 12 Jan, Week 2 (1) Chapter 4, “Technologies of the Third Mediamorphosis” from Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media by Roger Fidler (1997) ;(2) “As We May Think,” Atlantic Monthly by Vannevar Bush ( 176:1) (July 1945) w3.org/History/1945/vbush/ ; Atlantic Monthly (printable)(3) Extra-Credit: “Networks of Remediation” from Remediation: Understanding New Media by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin (1999) .(4) Extra-Credit: The Internet: A Short History of Getting Connected from the Federal Communications Commission (2004), www.fcc.gov/omd/history/internet/
- Reading reflection (blog post) due by 9 am Mon Two “ah-ha’s” from these readings. Plus … how does Vannevar Bush’s 1945 description of “Memex” compare with today’s personal computers and Internet? How do you envision the Internet of 2045?
- Extra-Credit (one separate blog post) due 9 am Mon
- Readings Due Monday 19 Jan, Week 3(1) ” We Have the Information You Want, But Getting It Will Cost You: Being Held Hostage by Information Overload” from ACM Crossroads by Mark R. Nelson (nd) www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds1-1/mnelson.html [may need to be logged in to UW Libraries if offsite];(2) “The Internet: Window to the World or Hall of Mirrors?” from InterNIC News by Jack Solock (1996) scout.wisc.edu/Projects/PastProjects/toolkit/enduser/archive/1996/euc-9611.html
- Reading Reflection (blog post) due 9 am Mon Use these readings to explain how your life is affected by information (too much? too little? just enough?)
- Remember your questions!
- Readings Due Monday 26 Jan, Week 4 : (1) “Being Analog” (formerly published as Chapter 7 of The Invisible Computer) by Donald Norman (1997) www.jnd.org/dn.mss/being_analog.html ;(2) ” A Short History Of the Internet” from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (February 1993), w3.aces.uiuc.edu/AIM/scale/nethistory.html
- Reading Reflection (blog post) due 9 am Mon How have these readings changed your view of the man-machine relationship?
- Remember your questions!
- Readings Due Monday 2 Feb, Week 5 : (1) Chapter 4 “Markets are Conversations” from The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual by Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger (1999, 2001) cluetrain.org;(2) “The Long Tail” from Wired by Chris Anderson (October 2004) wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html(3) Extra Credit : “The GNU Manifesto” by Richard Stallman (1985). ../pub/gnu_manifesto.html .
- Reading Reflection (blog post) due 9 am Mon Why should communication scholars study the open source software movement? If you don’t know what the open source software movement is …. then think about this: what are the similarities and differences between the two assigned readings?
- Extra-Credit (separate blog post) due 9 am Mon
- Remember your questions!
Peer Group 1 Will Be Discussion Leaders (Wed) - Readings Due Monday 9 Feb, Week 6 : (1) Chapter 1, “From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond” from We the Media by Dan Gillmor (2004) www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/book/;(2) “Will NPR’s podcasts birth a new business model for public radio?” from Online Journalism Review (29 Nov 2005) www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/051129glaser/
- Reading Reflection (blog post) due 9 am Mon What are the implications of blogging technology on established media?
- Remember your questions!
Peer Group 2 Will Be Discussion Leaders (Mon) - Readings Due Monday 16 Feb, Week 7 : (1) “Organization Man: Joe Trippi Reinvents Campaigning” from The New Republic Online by Noem Scheiber (10 November 2003); (2) “The Race of the Web Sites 2004″ from ACM Interactions by Kathy Gill (November-December 2004) http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/gill_ACM_2004.pdf; (3) Extra-Credit: The Rise of Guerrilla Media (2006) in The New Atlantis
- Reading Reflection (blog post) due 9 am Mon How does Internet technology impact politics? Do you agree with the premise of these authors? Why or why not?
- Extra-Credit (separate blog post) due 9 am Mon
- Remember your questions!
Peer Group 3 Will Be Discussion Leaders (Wed) - Readings Due Monday 23 Feb, Week 8 :(1) Albritton, A. (2007, July/August). Digital branding. Network Journal (14)9. (2) Muncaster, P. (2008, January 14). How to strengthen customer bonds. IT Week.(3) Murphy, S. (2008, January). Circuit City goes social. Chain Store Age (84)1. Access via eReserve. (4) Extra-Credit: Advertising and Marketing on the Internet: Rules of the Road (FTC) How To Find These Readings:Access UW Library Ebsco database; select Publication tab; find publication; find issue; browse issue.
- Reading Reflection (blog post) due 9 am Mon Reflect upon your experiences with electronic commerce (banking, Amazon, iTunes, etc) in light of these articles.
- Extra-Credit (separate blog post) due 9 am Mon
- Remember your questions!
Peer Group 4 Will Be Discussion Leaders (Wed)
- Readings Due Monday 2 Mar, Week 9 : (1) “Wireless Revolution and Universal Access” from Trends in Telecommunications Reform 2003 by Michael L. Best, MIT (Sept 2003) cyber.law.harvard.edu/digitaldemocracy/best-wirelessrevolution-sept03.pdf (2)Extra-credit: New Government Report Exposes the Home-School Digital Divide (2006)
- Reading Reflection (blog post) due 9 am Mon What is the relationship between cyberspace as a public space and accessibility standards?
- Remember your questions!
Peer Group 5 Will Be Discussion Leaders (Mon) - Readings Due Monday 9 Mar Week 10 : (1) Digilante Justice (2008) in The New Atlantis; (2) The Age of Ego-Casting (2005) in The New Atlantis
- Reading Reflection (blog post) due 9 pm Mon
- Remember your questions!
Details on Reading Assignment (also, see Syllabus)
Students will create a blog (on WordPress.com) where they will reflect (not summarize!) on each week’s readings. Students are asked to write about the readings to help gain cognitive understanding of material as well as to hone analytical skills. Weekly reading assignments are not graded, except for completeness. Be sure to check your spelling and grammar, however!
• These are short (two-four paragraphs) reviews of assigned readings. Each post must also include three (3) discussion questions about the assigned readings. Length: 250-350 words + questions.
• Each regular weekly reading must be categorized “reading”. Each extra credit reading should be categorized “extra credit”.
• These posts are due Monday at 9 am. Late posts are not accepted.
