NCSU Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media (CRDM) program

COM701::History and Theory of Communication Technology
Instructor: Dr. Adriana de Souza e Silva

 

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Part I: Concepts for the study of (New) Media

 

Weeks Days Topics Class activities Readings due Assignments

0

Wed.
08.20

 

Course overview.

 

 

visit from the library (Kim Duckett)    
1
Wed. 08.27 What's new media? Texts presentation:

Manovich, "What's new media?" (pp. 18-61)

Enzensberger, "Constituents of a theory of the media" (pp. 259-275)

Baudrillard, "Requiem for the media" (pp. 277-288)

Uricchio, "Historicizing media in transition" (pp. 23-38).

Bolter, "Theory and practice in new media studies" (pp. 15-33)

 

 

Blog post 01

Wiki 01

 

 

2

Wed. 09.03 Interface / Database Texts presentation:
(Dan Sutko)

Manovich, "The Interface" (pp. 62-93)

Manovich, "The forms: The database" (pp. 212-233)

Vannevar Bush, "As we may think" (pp. 35-48)

Engelbart, "From augmenting the human intellect: (pp. 93-108)

 

Blog post 02

Wiki 02

 

 

3
Wed. 09.10

Mobility / Speed

Texts presentation:
(Jason Kalin)

Kellerman, "Technologies" (pp. 72-108)

Sheller & Urry, "The new mobilities paradigm" (pp. 207-226)

Jensen, "Facework, flow and the city" (pp. 143-165)

Wood and Graham, "Differential mobilities" (pp. 177-191)

 

Blog post 03

Wiki 03

 

 

4 Wed. 09.17

 

Space / Place Texts presentation:
(Katie Fargo)

Manovich, "The forms: Navigable space" (pp. 244-285)

Castells, "The space of flows" (pp. 407– 459).

Kellerman, "Places" (pp. 128-144)

Meyrowitz, "The rise of glocality" (pp. 21-30)

 

Blog post 04

Wiki 04

 

5
Wed. 09.24 Information / Materiality Texts presentation:

Hayles, "The condition of virtuality" (pp. 68-94)

Wiener, "Men, machines, and the world about" (pp. 65-72)

Hobart & Schiffman, "The realm of pure technique" (pp. 201-234)

Lupton, "The embodied computer/user" (pp. 422-432)

 

 

Blog post 05

Wiki 05

-- proposals for final paper due (class discussion)

 

 

6
Wed. 10.01 Virtual / Actual

 

Texts presentation:
(Zach Rash)

de Souza e Silva, "Defining the virtual" (pp. 48-80)

Poster, "Theorizing the virtual" (pp. 129-147)

Lévy, "The nature of virtualization" (pp. 23-34)

Deleuze, "Incompossiblity, individuality, liberty" (pp. 67 -83)

Borges, "The garden of the forking paths" (pp. 29-34)

 

 

Blog post 06

Wiki 06

-- mid-course evaluation

 

 

 

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Part II: "When old technologies were new"

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7

 

Wed. 10.08

Book / Print

 

Texts presentation:
(Jordan Frith)

Hobart & Schiffman, "Printing and the rupture of classification" (pp. 87-111)

Briggs & Burke, "The print revolution in context" (pp. 15-73)

Manguel, "The shape of the book" (pp. 125-148)

Garvey, "Scissoring and scrapbooks" (pp. 207-227)

 

Blog post 07

Wiki 07

 

 

 

8

 

Wed. 10.15 19-20th century technologies Texts presentation:
(Jacob Dickerson)

Briggs & Burke, "Processes and patterns" (pp. 121-187)

Marvin, "Dazzling the multitude" (pp. 152-190)

Schilvelbusch, "Panoramic travel" AND "The compartment" (pp. 52-88)

Stubbs, "Telegraph's corporeal fictions" (pp. 91-112)

 

Blog post 08

Wiki 08

 

9
Wed. 10.22

Mass Media (Radio / TV)


Texts presentation:
(David Gruber)

Briggs & Burke, "Information, Education, Entertainment" (pp. 216-265)

McLuhan, "Two selections by Marshall McLuhan" (pp. 193-210)

Adorno & Horkheimer, "The culture industry" (pp. 71-101)

Benjamin, "The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction" (pp. 48-70)

 

 

Blog post 09

Wiki 09

-- paper outline + initial sources due (class discussion)

 

 

Part III: Understanding New Media as Media

10
Wed. 10.29

E-text (Hypertext, Cybertext, Technotext)

Texts presentation:
(Matt Morain)

 

Nelson, "A file structure for the complex, the changing, and the indeterminate" (pp. 133-145)

Aarseth, "Nonlinearity and literary theory" (pp. 761-780)

Hayles, "Material metaphors, technotexts, and media-specific analysis" (pp. 18-33)

Hayles, "Translating media" (pp. 89-116)

 

Blog post 10

Wiki 10

 

 

11
Wed. 11.05

Web 2.0

 

Texts presentation:
(Jamie Gilbert)

 

Hardey, "The city in the age of web 2.0" (pp. 867-884)

Jenkins, "Interactive audiences?" (pp. 134-151)

Jenkins, "Pop cosmopolitanism" (pp. 152-172)

Jenkins, "Blog this!" (pp. 178-181)

Fagerjord, "Rhetorical convergence: Studying web media" (pp. 293-326)

 

 

Blog post 11

Wiki 11

12
Wed. 11.12

Gaming

Texts presentation:
(Melinda Leonardo)

Nielsen, Smith, & Tosca, "History" (pp. 45-96)

Turkle, "Video games and computer holding power" (pp. 499-514)

Liestøl, "Computer games and the ludic structure of interpretation" (pp. 327-358)

Jenkins, "The war between effects and meanings" (pp. 208-221)

 

 

Blog post 12

Wiki 12

 

 

13

 

Wed. 11.19

NCA / no class

Mobile media

 

de Souza e Silva, "From cyber to hybrid" (pp. 261-278)

Farley, "Mobile telephone history" (pp. 22-34)

Mann, Nolan & Wellman, "Sousveillance" (pp. 331-355)

Dourish, "The infrastructure of experience and the experience of infrastructure" (pp 414-430)

 

 

Blog post 13

Wiki 13

Wed. 11.26

 

Thanksgiving (no class)
14
Wed. 12.03 Final presentations

 

 

 

 

 

- Final paper due

15
Finals Week

Wed. 12.11 no class