MEJO 715—New Media and Society
Instructor: Rhonda Gibson, Ph.D. (please call me Rhonda)
Associate Professor
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Office phone: (919) 843-8296, Carroll Hall Room 376
Cell phone: (919) 699-6567
Course Overview: The creation and diffusion of digital media and other communication technologies, combined with the rising sophistication of computer software and hardware, have transformed the ways that individuals, organizations and corporations communicate. This transformation is occurring at such a rapid pace that it’s difficult to keep up with the newest technologies, much less understand how to strategically and successfully deploy those technologies to achieve your professional and personal communication-related goals.
This course is designed to introduce you to cutting-edge trends and the latest advancements in the information technology landscape. The course will focus on theoretical models and frameworks that are relevant in digital environments as well as practical applications of those models and frameworks. Through a combination of lectures, readings, assignments, and projects, you will develop a nuanced understanding of diverse new media topics (e.g., Internet advertising, social networking, e-commerce, online journalism, human-computer interaction, computer-mediated communication, virtual reality, etc.). Our discussions will examine how individuals respond to new technologies as social actors and how we can use that understanding to predict and manage communication patterns.
This course is largely structured into two broad areas: new wine, new bottles (the examination of concepts, frameworks, and issues unique to new media) and old wine, new bottles (the application of concepts and frameworks developed in more traditional domains to today’s digital communication environment). We will use research from the fields of cognitive and social psychology to help media professionals understand not just how — but also why — people use and interact with digital media and to harness that understanding so that we can do our communication and media jobs better.
We will also examine the ethical implications of the decisions we make. Technology and digital media are rapidly changing, and it’s a real challenge to keep up with the latest developments. What sometimes gets lost in the scramble is a discussion about what we should do in addition to what we know how to do. So, along with learning how to use digital media to achieve our professional goals, we will address the individual and societal effects of our digital media best practices.
(My thanks go to Dr. Sri Kalyanaraman for his work
in creating the original version of this course.)
Course Objectives: The specific course objectives are:
· To learn about a variety of new media technologies and applications
· To become familiar with research into the use and effects of digital media
· To translate conceptual understandings of new media into practical applications
· To learn strategies for critiquing new media research
· To develop a theoretically grounded set of digital communication best practices in an area of personal and professional interest to you
· To consider the ethical implications of these best practices
Textbook: Nass, C., & Yen, C. (2010). The man who lied to his laptop: What machines teach us about human relationships. New York, NY: Current (Penguin Group). Copies of additional readings will be made available during the semester.
Graded Assignments (NOTE: You can find additional information about each of these assignments under the Assignments heading in the class Sakai site.)
Technology Critique Assignment: This assignment requires you to analyze and critique one video from a set of 13 that are chosen to reflect one or more aspects of the readings and discussion during the course of the semester. Your critique, which should be between 750-1,000 words, should showcase your understanding of relevant class-related discussion, readings, and lecture notes (see additional guidelines on the Sakai site). This assignment is 10 percent of your course grade and is due by noon on Tuesday, July 11.
Annotated Bibliography: This assignment, which is due by noon on Monday, June 26, will prepare you to write your best practices manual. For this assignment, you will provide a detailed annotation for the key academic and trade sources that are relevant to your selected topic. For each entry in your bibliography, you should explain the study’s methodology and findings, a critique of its quality, and its specific relevance to your topic. For articles that are not reports of research studies, you should summarize the content of the article, critique its quality, and explain its relevance to your topic. Items in your bibliography should address the history/context of your topic, the concepts/variables involved in the topic, as well as the findings of research relevant to the topic. Please use APA style for this assignment.
There is no set number of items that should be included – it’s your job to thoroughly review the relevant literature. But as a rule of thumb, your bibliography should include at least 10 scholarly journal articles related to your topic of research. You may also include trade and industry publications, but these cannot substitute for academic research. Please note that your annotations should NOT simply be copied from the abstract of the articles. Also, your paragraph summaries need to be in your own words and light on direct quotations. It is essential that you thoroughly read the articles that you are using to develop a complete understanding of how they fit in with your topic. In addition to your article summaries, your bibliography should include an opening section that explains the issue that you are focusing on and its relevance to communication professionals. This assignment accounts for 25 percent of the course grade.
Best Practices Manual: You will select a digital communication-related issue that is of personal and/or professional interest and value to you. You will thoroughly examine the current research in that area, as well as older research from relevant areas that would inform your understanding of the issue. You will critique and evaluate that research, eliminating that which is poorly conceptualized or executed. Finally, you will “translate” the remaining literature into a concrete set of best practices for communication professionals. Your final document will include a brief statement of the problem/challenge/issue, a glossary of relevant terms, the detailed set of best practices, and a reference list that professionals could use for additional information. I strongly encourage you to consult with me before you finalize your topic for this assignment. The best practices manual accounts for 35 percent of the course grade and is due by noon on Sunday, July 30.
Discussion Participation: Another 30 percent of the course grade is devoted to the quality of your participation in the weekly discussion forums. As you well know, the success of any graduate seminar depends on the quality of discussion that we engage in, so please SPEAK UP! For every week of class, there will be two general threads of discussion: one related to understanding the key concepts and findings of the assigned readings/videos and one related to applying those materials to specific professional communication settings. It is expected that all of you will participate in both of these threads each week with at least one substantive original post for each thread and at least one response post (responding to one of your classmates’ posts) for each thread. Your top 8 weekly discussion grades will be used to compute this component of your course grade. (Please note that you are expected to post at least something to the Discussion Board each week, even if that week will not be one of your top 8. If you must be completely absent from the Discussion Board for an entire week because of some major extenuating circumstance, please notify me in advance.)
The schedule for the Discussion Board is as follows: Monday and Tuesday are reading/thinking days. Please do both! The Discussion Board will open each week at 6 a.m. EST on Wednesday and close at midnight EST on Sunday. You are required to post on at least two of the five days that the Discussion Board is open. (Please do not take this to mean that it’s acceptable to post at 11:55 p.m. on Thursday and 12:05 a.m. on Friday and count that as two separate days!) It is expected that you will check in with the Discussion Board and read your classmates’ posts even on (most) days that you do not post yourself. Early and/or late posts are not counted for grading purposes.
A weekly discussion grade of P can be earned by completing the required four original and response posts, demonstrating an understanding of the assigned material and an ability to apply it to a practical professional setting.
A weekly discussion grade of H can be earned by increasing the quality (more so than the quantity) of your posts. H grades are reserved for those who bring high-quality additional information to the discussion, making connections that are not already made by the assigned readings, the instructor or classmates. These posts help others synthesize and apply the material and/or suggest new ways of examining the issue under consideration.
A weekly discussion grade of L can be earned by completing fewer than the required number of posts and/or by doing overly brief or superficial posts that fail to show an understanding and application of the assigned material.
A weekly discussion grade of F can be earned by not posting to the Discussion Board in any given week.
Policy on Academic Integrity: Students are expected to conform to the Honor Code in all academic matters. For more information on the Honor Code, please visit the following URL: http://www.unc.edu/depts/honor/studinfo.html, or feel free to speak to me or someone at the Office of the Student Attorney General or the Office of the Dean of Students.
Course Schedule
Week 1 Introductions and the syllabus
May 22-23 Virtual Reality & Robotics (Time permitting)
Week 2 Introduction to HCI
May 29-June 4 New media & social roles
Week 3 New media & personality
June 5-11 Proposed topic for annotated bibliography/best practices manual due June 5
Week 4 New media & emotion
June 12-18 Final topic statement and five annotated bibliography entries due June 12
Week 5 New media & persuasion
June 19-25
Week 6 Interactivity & navigability
June 26-July 2 Annotated bibliography due June 26
Week 7 Customization
July 3-9
Week 8 Online journalism
July 10-16 Tech critique due July 11
Week 9 Online advertising and e-marketing
July 17-23
Week 10 More about AI/VR/Robotics
July 24-27 Final projects consults
Best practices manual due by noon on Sunday, July 30