In contemporary society, nearly every aspect of social, personal, political, cultural, and economic life is mediated by digital technology. Digital media, broadly defined, provide the structures in which we express our individual identity, maintain relationships, engage in political discourse, and interact with powerful institutions. This course will consider the increasingly entangled relationship between digital media and society from multiple angles. We will examine the impacts of digital media on numerous dimensions of social life, including culture and identity, equality and privilege, privacy, politics, and journalism. We will also consider how the influence flows in the opposite direction — that is, the ways in which powerful corporate and government actors, cultural mores, and entrenched ways of thinking have shaped the development of digital media forms. Students in this course will learn to synthesize and critique contemporary theories of the social impact of digital media and offer their own conception of what it means to live in a networked society.

Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025

This course introduces students to the interplay between data and the societal context surrounding them. We will cover the basics of data science, focusing on data and algorithms' ethical, legal, and social implications. Students will learn to conceptualize and evaluate practical applications of data science in communication, information, and media contexts.

Fall 2022, Spring 2023 

This course examines the nature and impact of the media of mass communication in society. Particular attention is paid to emerging media technology, including the Internet and other digital technologies. Students learn four primary ways new technology influences media and society, including 1) how media professionals and members of the public increasingly create content using new media technologies, 2) the nature of mediated content, 3) the relationships between and among media and relevant publics, and 4) the structure, culture and management of media organizations and systems. Students learn five areas of media technology, including 1) acquisition tools, 2) storage technologies, 3) processing devices, 4) distribution technologies and 5) display, access or presentation tools. This course examines how media theory can be used to explain the communicative power of citizens, journalists and politicians in the era of mainstream media, and today as American politics has been “rebooted” with the digital revolution.

Fall & Spring 2023, 2024, 2025

In our digitally interconnected world, data plays a pivotal role in shaping societies and cultures worldwide. This graduate seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach to critically analyze how data practices and technologies interact with and transform social and cultural contexts across different regions. Students will explore the complexities of data and data infrastructures within diverse social, political, economic, and historical settings, gaining insight into how it both shapes and is shaped by local cultures and political conjunctures across geographies. As data-driven technologies continue to proliferate, it becomes crucial for scholars and practitioners alike to address the ethical, social, and political implications of data production and usage. Particularly, this course places significant attention on the concept of power, examining how data can be leveraged to reinforce historic power imbalances affecting marginalized communities and postcolonial regions. Simultaneously, students will explore the capacities of data to serve as a tool for social change, critically investigating its potential for empowering communities and fostering positive transformation. The main themes and modules for this course include (but are not limited to): Epistemologies of data, the datafied state, data colonialism, data publics & counterpublics, and the politics of data infrastructures. Through in-depth discussions, case studies, and individual research projects, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of key scholarship in critical data studies.

Fall 2023