HS 631 Digital Cultures and New Media

HS 631 Digital Cultures and New Media

AIM 

The core focus of the course “Digital Cultures and New Media” is to understand the significance of cultures with the arrival of the “digital age” and the role of new media in shaping public life and opinion. From Facebook (2004) to the Android Nougat (2017), from Smartphones (2012) to Smartwatches (2006), the world has sped into the Internet Era, and lives have been deeply affected by these changes propelled by the use of technology.

We critically evaluate the role of Internet and New Media technologies in the changing scenario of the world. We also look at the shift from the “old” to the “new” when we talk of New Media. The discussion will revolve around both form and content. We situate these studies in theoretical work spanning early 20th century until the present. The course will be conducted through a series of case-studies, and seminars. The course is thematically arranged around issues that are pertinent to the “digital civilization”.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Week One

• Introductory Lecture
  • Can Medium be the message?
    • Mc Luhan, Understanding Media. United Kingdom: Routledge, 1964

Week Two

• Can Medium be the Message?
  • Can there be a new media without reflecting into “old media?”
• Public Opinion and what shapes it?
• The printing press, World Wars, and Gandhi’s press
• Writing and reporting news: some pragmatics
  • Mc Luhan, Understanding Media. United Kingdom: Routledge, 1964.
  • Lipmann, Walter. “Public Opinion”. Key Readings in Journalism. (Editors. Elliot King and Jane L. Chapman), New York: Routledge, 2012.
  • Hofemeyr, Isabel. Gandhi’s Printing Press: Slow Experiments with Reading, Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2013.
  • Natarajan, S. History of Press in India: Audit Bureau of Circulations, 1962.

Week Three
What is “Digital” about digital media?

• As the world moved from AM to FM Radio
• Communities and Community Radio
• Digital Radio and its impact
  • Buckingham, David and Rebekah Willett (eds.) Digital Generations: Children, Young People and New Media (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2006).
  • Flew, Terry& Richard Smith. New Media: An Introduction, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  • Feldman, Tony. An Introduction to Digital Media, London: Routledge, 1997.
  • Ranganathan, Maya & Usha M. Rodrigues. “Commercial FM Radio Takes Over Indian City” in Indian Media in a Globalised World. New Delhi: SAGE, 2010.
  • Bailur, Savita. “Who is the “Community” in Community Radio?” EPW VOL. XLVII, Issue 17, April 28 2012.

Week Four

• Television and Public Service Broadcasting
• Public Service Broadcasting in India
• Television and Gender
• Women, Mythologies, Sexualities
  • Bourdeiu, Pierre. “On Television and Journalism”. Key Readings in Journalism. (Editors. Elliot King and Jane L. Chapman), New York: Routledge, 2012.
  • Bourdeiu, Pierre. “On Television” [New Press]. New York Times, 1998. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/bourdieu-television.html
  • Ranganathan, Maya & Usha M. Rodrigues. “The Archetypes of Sita, Kaikeyi and Suparnakha” . Indian Media in a Globalised World. New Delhi: SAGE, 2010.
    • Manuel, Castells. “Rise of the Network Society” The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2nd Edition, 2010.

Week Five

• Is it really the end of books?
• World Wide Web
• The Rise of Network Societies
  • Berners Lee, Tim et al. “The World Wide Web”. New Media Reader (Editors. Wardrip-Fruin, Noah & Montfort, Nick). Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003.
  • Coover, Robert. “The End of Books” . New Media Reader (Editors. Wardrip-Fruin, Noah & Montfort, Nick). Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003.
  • Landow, George P. Hypertext:The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore& London: Johns Hopkins Press, 1992.

Week Six

• The blogosphere and who leads it?
• Technology and New Media Society
• How creative is creative writing on New Media?
• Humour, politics and blogging, and audience
  • Nicolas, Bill. “The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems”. New Media Reader (Editors. Wardrip-Fruin, Noah & Montfort, Nick). Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003.
  • Ranganathan, Maya & Usha M. Rodrigues. “Freedom in Blogosphere”. Indian Media in a Globalised World. New Delhi: SAGE, 2010.

Week Seven

• New Media in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction
• Online Networks and identity building
• The bot culture and role of social bots
• Anonymity and censorship
• Chat-rooms and café-culture
  • Benjamin, Walter. “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. Illuminations, edited by Hannah Arendt, translated by Harry Zohn, from the 1935 essay New York: Schocken Books, 1969.
  • Farrell, Henry, and Daniel W. Drezner. “The Power and Politics of Blogs.” Public Choice, vol. 134, no. 1/2, 2008, pp. 15–30. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27698208.

Week Eight

• The Cultural Shift in Cybernetic worlds
• Organizations and institutions change with new media technologies
• IITs in Media
  • Deb, Sandipan. The IITians. New Delhi: Penguin Viking, 2004.
  • Nicolas, Bill. “The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems”. New Media Reader (Editors. Wardrip-Fruin, Noah & Montfort, Nick). Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003.

Week Nine

• Music, mixing and new media viral videos
• Music and cosmopolitanism in digital media forms
• Music and “originality”
• From 70mm to Satellite Cinema, Amazon Prime and more…
  • Weiner, Norbert. “Men, Machines and the World About”. New Media Reader (Editors. Wardrip-Fruin, Noah & Montfort, Nick). Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003.

Week Ten
As the Cyborg turns around cultures

• Temporalities and new media: Postmodern worlds
• The HomoLuden and Gaming Consoles
  • Haraway, Donna. “Cyborg Manifesto” . New Media Reader (Editors. Wardrip-Fruin, Noah & Montfort, Nick). Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003.
  • Jameson, Fredric. Postmodernism or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Media and Cultural Studies: Key Works.2nd Edition. Editors: Meenakshi G. Durham& Douglas M. Kellner, United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
  • Weiner, Norbert. “Men, Machines and the World About”. New Media Reader (Editors. Wardrip-Fruin, Noah & Montfort, Nick). Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003.

Week Eleven

• Case Studies of Social Media Platforms
• Case Studies of Social Media Platforms
  • Banaji, Shakuntala. “Introduction”. South Asian Media Cultures: Audiences, Representations, Contexts. London& New York: Anthem Press, 2010.

Week Twelve

• Electronic archiving and documenting histories
• Paradigm shifts in the world of publishing
• Family histories, DNA and

Week Thirteen

• New Media and manufacturing consent
• Capitalism, consumer society and New Media
  • Herman, Edward S. & Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of Mass Media, United States: Pantheon Books, 1998. (Chapter 30)
  • Feldman, Tony. “Online Networks”. An Introduction to Digital Media, London: Routledge, 1997.

Week Fourteen

• Building narratives of future through Online networks
  • Feldman, Tony. “What does it all Mean?”. An Introduction to Digital Media, London: Routledge, 1997.

COURSE POLICY 

• Intensive involvement in reading, presenting, designing
• Zero tolerance to plagiarism or any kind of other practices not ethically acceptable
• Deadlines are sacrosanct.
• Attendance Mandatory
• Photographs and other media used in the assignments should either be original, used with due permissions, or be under the Creative Commons user Licenses.

COURSE OUTCOME

The course gives a primer on the field of Digital Cultures and New Media to students who intend to develop and strengthen their research in Media/New Media studies. It is also open to Master’s and UG students who are passionate to learn about cultural philosophies in recent media related technology.