Digitalised Societies: A Socio-Technical Analysis - JSB726

• Anglický název: Digitalised Societies: A Socio-Technical Analysis
• Zajišťuje: Katedra sociologie (23-KS)
• Fakulta: Fakulta sociálních věd
• Platnost: od 2022
• Semestr: letní
• E-Kredity: 7
• Způsob provedení zkoušky: letní s.:
• Rozsah, examinace: letní s.:1/1, Zk [HT]
• Počet míst: 80 / 96 (80)
• Minimální obsazenost: neomezen
• 4EU+: ne
• Virtuální mobilita / počet míst pro virtuální mobilitu: ne
• Stav předmětu: vyučován
• Jazyk výuky: angličtina
• Způsob výuky: prezenční
• Poznámka: předmět je možno zapsat mimo plán; povolen pro zápis po webu
• Garant: Mgr. Andrea Hrůzová, Ph.D.
• Vyučující: Bc. Tomáš Bláha; Hana Drštičková; Mgr. Marie Heřmanová, Ph.D.; Mgr. Andrea Hrůzová, Ph.D.; Vojtěch Indra; Bc. Marie Podařilová
• Třída: Courses for incoming students
• Neslučitelnost : JSB532
• Je neslučitelnost pro: JSB532
• Je záměnnost pro: JSB532

Anotace

The course provides an introduction to the sociological understanding of how information and communication technologies shape contemporary societies. The course focuses on social, cultural, political, and economic implications of the diffusion of digital media in late modernity. The lectures provide an overview of the historical development of digital media and discuss various spheres of social life which have been significantly transformed by the presence of digital media: self-presentation, social relationships, political engagement, hate speech, racism, or economy. A focus is given to the politics of digital media as well as to the politics through social media. Lectures are accompanied by seminars run in a smaller group of students to allow everyone to engage in discussion through the reflection of reading. The final two weeks of the semester are dedicated to the intense and guided work on a final essay in thematically established groups.

The course has a relationship with the course “Digital Ethnography”. It is highly recommended that students attend the course “Digitalized Societies” FIRST.

There should be no simultaneous combination of this course with the class “Mediated Societies,” the “Mediated Societies” course should be attended FIRST.

Poslední úprava: Hrůzová Andrea, Mgr., Ph.D. (27.01.2025)

Cíl předmětu

Course Objectives
1. Understanding of the ways in which information and communication technologies shape contemporary societies.
2. Development of the knowledge about social, cultural, political and economic implications of the diffusion of digital media in late modernity.
3. Critical examination of one´s own position within the contemporary communication infrastructure.

Poslední úprava: Hrůzová Andrea, Mgr., Ph.D. (31.01.2024)

Podmínky zakončení předmětu

Assessment methods

• mandatory attendance of 80% (will be monitored, acceptance of 3 absences throughout the whole semester) 

• reading reflection of every single reading: in total 8 reflections - 16 points (2 points per reflection)

  • What is the main information of the text?

  • What have I learned?

  • Which examples from my everyday/professional life can I provide related to the text?

  • Was I missing some information/example/data in the text?

  • reading reflection consists of answering the following questions for each text (600 words):

  • late submission of reflection = 0 points 

  • two absent reflections = minus one grade 

  • reading reflection is submitted via Moodle 24 hours before the seminar

  • reading reflection cannot be submitted after the 12th week of the semester (5. 5.)

•  first articulation of the final essay - 10 points

  • submitted in the week no. 11 & 12 via Moodle

  • consists of title, goal(s), short blurb and two references outside the seminar reading (400 words) 

• final essay submission - 74 points

  • 1800 words (excluding references)

  • final project in the form of a mini research (template will be provided) delivered in the following formats: paper; video essay; podcast; social media project

  • submitted via Moodle in three officially announced deadlines

  • it is necessary to reach 37 points to pass the class

In the course, there is the ZERO AI USE policy. If there is a suspicion for the use of an AI tool, a material is going through an AI detector tool and there is an oral examination of students regarding the research process and the content of the submitted material.

A - F grading system

91 + = A
81-90 = B
71-80 = C
61-70 = D
51-60 = E
0-50 = F

 

Extra Curricular Activity: ROBOTIC WORKSHOP in the National Technical Library 

• 3. 4. 9.00 (sign-up document will be shared )

• 17. 4. 9.00 (sign-up document will be shared)

Poslední úprava: Hrůzová Andrea, Mgr., Ph.D. (27.01.2025)

Literatura

Compulsory readings for seminars (listed by weeks):

week 2:

• Divon, Tom, and Moa Eriksson Krutrök. (2023). „TikTok(ing) Ukraine: Meme-based Expressions of Cultural Trauma on Social Media." In Mortenssen, Mette and Mervi Pantti (eds): Media and the War in Ukraine, Peter Lang Verlag , p. 119–136.

• Georgiou, M. and Troszyński, M. (2023) ‘Uprooting and Borders: The Digital Architecture of the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis’, LSE Public Policy Review, 3(1), p. 9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.93.

week 4:

• Vilem Flusser. 1983/2000. “The Apparatus” (chapter) in Towards the Philosophy of Photography, 21-32 - submission of reading reflection

• homework project: create a conceptual map of all the technological devices in your everyday and professional life and consider non-human components they consist of

week 6:

• Duffy, B., & Hund, E. (2019). Gendered Visibility on Social Media: Navigating Instagram’s Authenticity Bind. International Journal Of Communication, 13, 20. 

• homework project: a critical reflection on a YouTube creator´s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocbIhaTiTqs (accompanying reading:  https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/9/29/21492270/emma-chamberlain-youtube-coffee

week 8:

• Ging, Debbie. 2017. ‘Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere’. Men and Masculinities 22(4):638–57. doi: 10.1177/1097184X17706401.

• Siapera, E., & Viejo-Otero, P. (2021). Governing Hate: Facebook and Digital Racism. Television & New Media, 22(2), 112-130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476420982232

 

Recommended literature:

Barassi, V. (2019). Datafied Citizens in the Age of Coerced Digital Participation. Sociological Research Online, 24(3), 414-429.

Fisher, E. and Fuchs, C. (eds.) 2015. Reconsidering value and labour in the digital age. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gane, N., & Beer, D. (2008). New media: The key concepts. Oxford: Berg

Kelty, C. (2008). Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Lupton, Deborah (2013) Digital Sociology. London: Routledge.

Marres, N. (2017). Digital sociology: The reinvention of social research. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Miller, V. (2011). Understanding digital culture. London: SAGE Publications.

Orton-Johnson, K. and N. Prior (Eds) (2013) Critical Perspectives in Digital Sociology, Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke.

Poslední úprava: Hrůzová Andrea, Mgr., Ph.D. (27.01.2025)

Metody výuky

Teaching methods:  

Frontal lectures accommodate Q & A parts and provoke questions meant to be discussed in seminar groups.

Seminar groups provide the space for reading reflection and open, yet safe collective dabate in a smaller group of students.

One final week is dedicated to making students well prepared for the essay writing.

The course content and homeworks should be available and submitted via the Moodle.

Extra Curricular Activity: ROBOTIC WORKSHOP in the National Technical Library 

• 3. 4. 9.00 (sign-up document will be shared at the beginning of the semester)

• 17. 4. 9.00 (sign-up document will be shared at the beginning of the semester)

Poslední úprava: Hrůzová Andrea, Mgr., Ph.D. (27.01.2025)

Sylabus

1st week: lecture Digitalized Societies: Course Intro (17. 2.) 

• introduction to the course

• formal characteristics of the course

• week by week content 

• discussion of everyday digital media experience with students

• lecture delivered by Andrea Pruchova Hruzova

 

2nd week:  seminar reading & discussion War on Ukraine (24. 2.)

• Divon, Tom, and Moa Eriksson Krutrök. (2023). „TikTok(ing) Ukraine: Meme-based Expressions of Cultural Trauma on Social Media." In Mortenssen, Mette and Mervi Pantti (eds): Media and the War in Ukraine, Peter Lang Verlag , p. 119–136.

• Georgiou, M. and Troszyński, M. (2023) ‘Uprooting and Borders: The Digital Architecture of the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis’, LSE Public Policy Review, 3(1), p. 9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.31389/lseppr.93.

 

3rd week: lecture Theory of New Media (3. 3.) 

• how old are the new media: Convergent culture (H. Jenkins)

• participatory online cultures (H. Jenkins, fandom)

• the power of Apparatus (V. Flusser)

• principles of new media (L. Manovich) 

• geology of new media (J. Parikka) 

 

4th week: seminar reading & discussion (10. 3.)

• Vilem Flusser. 1983/2000. “The Apparatus” (chapter) in Towards the Philosophy of Photography, 21-32 - submission of reading reflection

• homework project: create a conceptual map of all the technological devices in your everyday and professional life and consider non-human components they consist of

 

5th week: lecture Identity, Self-branding and Social Media (17. 3.) 

• identity construction, self-branding (from Goffman to TikTok algorithm)

• authenticity on social media and its gendered aspects (Jefferson, Duffy, Banet-Weiser)

• selfies and self-presentation (Abidin)

• lecture delivered by Marie Heřmanová 

 

6th week: seminar reading & discussion (24. 3.)

• Duffy, B., & Hund, E. (2019). Gendered Visibility on Social Media: Navigating Instagram’s Authenticity Bind. International Journal Of Communication, 13, 20. 

• homework project: a critical reflection on a YouTube creator´s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocbIhaTiTqs (accompanying reading:  https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/9/29/21492270/emma-chamberlain-youtube-coffee

 

7th week: lecture Digital Social Movements (31. 3.) 

• digital born movements (BLM, DTP, hashtag activism #MeToo)

• planetary mediated public sphere (networked activism, H. Rosa) 

• digital racism (E. Siapera) - digital nationalism (S. Mihejl)

• hate as an online mobilizing instrument (from migration crisis to platformed far-right politics)

• misogyny as an online practice, toxic representation of gender identities on social media (tradwifes and incels)

 

8th week: seminar reading & discussion (7. 4.) 

 

• Ging, Debbie. 2017. ‘Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere’. Men and Masculinities 22(4):638–57. doi: 10.1177/1097184X17706401.

• Siapera, E., & Viejo-Otero, P. (2021). Governing Hate: Facebook and Digital Racism. Television & New Media, 22(2), 112-130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476420982232

 

9th week: Guest Lecture: Martin Tremčinský “(Hidden) Labour in Digital Capitalism”  (14. 4.) 

• watch the video essay “Cycles of Labour: In Metaverse, We All Will Be Housewives”

https://necsus-ejms.org/cycles-of-labour-in-the-metaverse-we-will-be-housewives/

 

10th week: National Holiday (21. 4.)

 

11th week: Guest Lecture: Tereza Fousek Krobová “Gender and Video Games” (28. 4.) 

 

12th week: Research Practices in Digital Realm (5. 5.) 

• lecturers provide an insight into their actual research projects

 

13th week: seminar consultations of essays (12. 5.)

• students are meeting in newly established groups based on the choice of the essay´s theme

• before the consultation: each student submits the title and the goal(s) of the essay & two academic references out of the seminar reading list

 

Poslední úprava: Hrůzová Andrea, Mgr., Ph.D. (27.01.2025)