Course syllabus

 

COMMS 300: New Media and the Future of Communication

SEMESTER 2, 2019

15 points

 

Well-Being Always Comes First We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there. For more information, look at this Canvas page, which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.

 

COURSE CONVENOR
Luke Goode 
Email: l.goode@auckland.ac.nz
Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 86030
Semester 2 office hours: Fridays 2-4pm
Office: Room 544, Human Sciences Building (201E)

TUTOR
Kaitiaki Rodger
Email: krdo200@aucklanduni.ac.nz 
Semester 2 office hours: Tuesdays 2-3.30pm
Office: Room 528, Human Sciences Building (201E)

STUDENT CLASS REPS
Sarah Albom: salb075@aucklanduni.ac.nz 
Sav Wallis: swal558@aucklanduni.ac.nz 

Class Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/341314650131803/ 
[Disclaimer: this Facebook page is a student initiative and is NOT monitored or moderated by staff. As such, you should use it as a discussion forum but not as an official information source.]

COURSE DELIVERY FORMAT AND TIMETABLE
2 hours of lectures plus a 1 hour workshop.
Lectures: Wednesdays 4-6pm, Room G01, Building 303 (Maths & Physics)
Workshop: check SSO for your workshop time (all workshops take place in 201E-149, aka 'The Black Box'). 

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION              
How is communication changing in the digital age and how will it change in the future? Digital platforms and devices are profoundly affecting the way groups, institutions, businesses, communities and governments communicate. They are also transforming our experience as individuals who increasingly live in and through digital communication environments.

In this course we explore the impact of 21st century developments on the communications landscape. In particular, we consider how rapid and accelerating developments in digital technologies challenge us to rethink the very nature of communication.

Emerging technologies we discuss in this course include:
- wearable devices
- virtual reality (VR)
- artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms and machine learning
- robotics
- ubiquitous computing including the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities
- 3D printing

These changes in our media and communications landscape generate new ethical and political controversies relating to, among others: privacy and surveillance; human relationships; intellectual property and ownership of personal data; and the immense power of new media corporations (including Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple—the so-called GAFAs).

While studying the emerging technologies of the present, we also look forward to possible future developments and explore how new media could transform the nature and ethics of communication. We consider the ways in which digital technologies are now implicated in some of society's deepest hopes and fears, finding expression in the digital dystopias of Black Mirror, for example, or the utopia of the Transhumanist movement that imagines a future in which humans acquire God-like powers by merging with digital technology. 

This course is designed not only for technological enthusiasts but equally for those who find themselves sceptical, fearful, bewildered or ambivalent in the face of dizzying developments in communication technology (perhaps experiencing what a famous futurist in the 1970s called 'Future Shock').

While lectures will cover debates, analysis and theories surrounding new communication technologies, the third hour each week will involve hands-on workshops in which we will experience, use, play with and analyse actual examples of new digital technologies (including VR, basic robotics and 3D printers), connecting this experience to the concepts and debates covered in lectures. Please note, however: you don't need any prior technical skills or familiarity with such technologies in order to participate in (and enjoy!) these workshops. Nor is assessment tied to technical skills: rather, the emphasis will be on reflection, interpretation and communication. Again, technophobes as well as technophiles (and all those in between) are equally welcome! 

LECTURE SCHEDULE

Please note: lectures will be interactive and you will need to have done preparation as outlined in the details for each week before the lecture in order to benefit fully from the class.

How the lecture schedule works:
After an introduction to the course in the first week, we then move through five layers of inquiry, spending two weeks on each. Please note, however, that these five segments only reflect shifts of emphasis and are not neatly self-contained topics: there are important interconnections between them all. I’ve designed the course as a multi-dimensional study of emerging and future communication technologies, so you will need to be engaged with the course across the whole semester in order to succeed.

While we will pick out specific technologies each week to discuss, the five lecture segments are based around the kinds of analysis and questioning we will be applying. We will begin at the most concrete and tangible level by focusing on us, as individuals, and the way digital communication technologies are (re)shaping our everyday lives and identities (what sociologists would call the ‘micro’ level). We then move progressively outwards towards a society-wide (or ‘macro’ level) type of analysis in the final segment.

Further details for each week (including lecture slides and required readings) will be made available in advance of lectures — click on lecture titles for access to those resources.

nb The schedule below may be subject to alterations — you will be notified via Canvas in the event of any changes.

INTRODUCTION (week 1) gives an overview of the course, and its aims and objectives. We will introduce some key concepts and lines of enquiry that will run across the the whole course. And we will talk about expectations: what you can expect and what’s expected of you in order to succeed in this course. Week 01 (July 24) — UNBOXING: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE

PART A — DIGITAL LIVES (weeks 2 & 3) asks who we are, as human beings, in the digital age? Are new communication technologies enriching or impoverishing our lives? Is there any truth in the pessimistic argument that we are ­de-humanising ourselves by making technology an increasing part of our daily lives? What are our lives like in the digital age? Did we choose these lives, these behaviours and these habits? Or have we been coaxed and pressured into new forms of dependency on our digital devices and platforms? What will our lives look like in the future (and what do we want them to look like) as digital technologies advance yet further? Week 02 (July 31) — NARCISSUS NARCOSIS? TECHNOLOGIES OF THE SELF Week 03 (August 7) — OUR CYBORG LIVES: ARE WE ALREADY POST-HUMAN?

PART B — DIGITAL LIFE FORMS: MACHINES AS COMPANION SPECIES? (weeks 4 & 5) starts from the premise that, just as we are questioning our own humanity in this era of ubiquitous digital technology, we also find ourselves wondering if we’re handing control of our own lives over to new digital “life forms”—not just dumb tools programmed to obey our commands, but technologies (artificial intelligence, algorithms, robots etc.) increasingly able to respond, learn, develop and perhaps even ‘evolve’ in ways we cannot fully anticipate. When we create digital minds and bodies with immense physical, cognitive or communicative capacities that in some ways outstrip our own, what becomes of human life and human communication? Can these smart technologies really serve us, rather than enslave us? [Spoiler alert: it isn't just about the technologies themselves — it's also a question of who or what designs, owns, and controls them.] Are humans becoming obsolete?  Can we learn to embrace smart machines and live in partnership with them, and what would it mean to be human in that scenario?  Week 04 (August 14) — DEEP MINDS: WHAT DO OUR ‘SMART’ MACHINES WANT FROM US? Week 05 (August 21) — UNCANNY VALLEYS: ARE ROBOTS OUT TO GET US?

PART C —DIGITAL (DIS)CONNECTION (weeks 6 & 7) begins by recognising that, whatever “being human” might mean, we are social creatures, not merely individuals. Part of being human is communicating and forming relationships with other humans... isn’t it? In the past couple of decades (a blink of an eye in historical and evolutionary terms), digital technologies have come to mediate and shape social relationships of almost every conceivable variety—from how we communicate with intimate partners to how we debate (or argue) with our fellow citizens. Week 06 (August 28) — Special guest lecture: THE MEDIATION AND ETHICS OF SEX ROBOTS (Dr Suzanne Woodward) Week 07 (September 18) — MEDIATED RELATIONSHIPS: UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL NETWORKS

PART D — DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS (weeks 8 & 9) explores how our lives and our identities are inextricably linked to the environments in which we live and move. This includes physical environments (cities, homes etc.), living environments (ecosystems), and symbolic environments (the information, ideas and images that shape our sense of ‘reality’ and ‘truth’). Digital technologies have begun to radically reshape our environments on all these levels, from virtual and augmented reality to fake news and ‘alternative facts’, from 'smart homes' to the Internet of Things (IoT). How do we make sense of our rapidly changing environments as digital technologies become increasingly pervasive (what one commentator has referred to as ‘everyware’)? Week 08 (September 25) — WHEN ATOMS AND BITS COLLIDE: DIGITIZED SPACES & OBJECTS  Week 09 (October 2) — EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING? LIVING IN VIRTUAL WORLDS

PART E — DIGITAL SOCIETIES (weeks 10 & 11) focuses on some of the least visible but most fundamental implications of new communication technologies. How is power distributed in this newly emerging digital society and what might that portend for the future? Are there winners and losers, or can digital technology benefit all of humanity? Are Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple our new overlords? What kind of society is emerging? There are debates about whether we're seeing the rise of ‘digital feudalism’ ruled by tech barons like Mark Zuckerberg, or ‘platform capitalism’ ruled by companies like Uber, or even a new ‘post-capitalist’ world ushered in by 3D printers or cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. How are we to make sense of all these confusing and conflicting claims about  power and control in the digital age? And where does power come from in the digital age? Some say data is the new oil and certainly those who own and control digital technologies are increasingly obsessed with gathering our personal data and building intimate profiles of our views, habits, tastes and proclivities. Governments are also increasingly able to deploy sophisticated digital technology to watch over their own and other countries’ citizens. So perhaps we are moving into what we might call the era of ‘surveillance capitalism’? Are we trading away our privacy in exchange for personal convenience and, if so, is it worth it? And, in contrast to all the dystopian gloom, can we imagine digital technology helping us to create a 'brighter future'? Week 10 (October 9) — ALL WATCHED OVER: TECHNOLOGIES OF SURVEILLANCE Week 11 (October 16) — BRIGHT DIGITAL FUTURES? OR, CAN 3D PRINTERS SAVE THE WORLD?

CONCLUSION (week 12) Week 12 (October 23) — Course wrap-up

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

This course is 100% internally assessed — there is no exam.

Assessment components: 

• Weekly quiz: 20%
• Review essay (1500 words): 25%
• Research essay / report (1500 words): 25%
• Group project (3-4 minute video): 20%
• Reflection (500 words): 10%

There is no plussage on this paper: all assessment components count towards your final grade for the course. 50% (C-) is the minimum pass mark for the course. There is no exam on this course. Details of individual assignments and deadlines will be posted under 'Assignments'.  

 

READINGS
There is no prescribed textbook for this course. I will set a required reading or viewing for each week and recommend further sources as we go. Aside from these specific lists, I will also post any miscellaneous sources that you may find useful over on this page. However, as a Stage 3 course, there is also a strong emphasis on and requirement for independent research: so long as you stay within the broad parameters of the course aims and objectives, you are encouraged to pursue the topics that interest you most.

WORKLOAD
The University of Auckland's expectation on 15-point courses is that students spend 10 hours per week on the course. Students manage their academic workload and other commitments accordingly. Students attend three hours of classes each week. This leaves seven hours per week outside the classroom to prepare for class and work on assignments.

SUBMISSION OF COURSEWORK
Unless otherwise stated, all coursework will be submitted online via Canvas. See individual assignments for submission requirements and deadlines.

DEADLINES AND EXTENSIONS
Deadlines for coursework are non-negotiable. In extreme circumstances, such as illness, you may seek an extension but you may be required to provide evidence such as a doctor’s certificate. In such cases, extensions must be personally negotiated with the convenor before the assignment is due. Extensions must be approved in writing (e.g. via email). You should write "Extension approved" at the top of your assignment. All late assignments without a pre-approved extension will be penalised one mark per day late. 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
This University (and the staff teaching this course) take any form of academic dishonesty (e.g. plagiarism) extremely seriously. If you are in any doubt about what constitutes plagiarism or the University's policies on academic dishonesty, please click here for details. Ignorance of the rules and policies will not be treated as a defence in cases of academic dishonesty. Such cases will incur penalties and may be reported to the University's disciplinary committee.