Welcome
Welcome to the course “Digital Revolution and the Information Crisis”.
First of all, this is a hybrid course (half online, half onsite). We will meet face-to-face in the official classroom (RVAC 102) Wednesdays from 10:50 am to 12:05 pm. The online part of the course will be asynchronous. In case you do not know, asynchronous means, in the context of online teaching, that we will NOT meet at regular times as a group. In the online section of this course, you will have to work independently.
In this Welcome Message, I will discuss the contents of the course, the readings and other learning material, as well as the grading elements. You will find online all the material you need to success in the course. You will have the flexibility to work whenever you can plan it in your schedule. It is, thus, very important that you regularly (at least once a day) log in to Blackboard Learn in order to keep up to date.
Personal Introduction
My name is Jose Carlos del Ama.
Although I originally come from Spain, I have spent the most important part of my life and academic career in Germany. I received my PhD from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz.
Before I came to the United States in 2003, I had been teaching and researching in Spain at the Universidad de Navarra (Pamplona) and in Germany at the above mentioned university.
My emphasis areas of teaching and research are
- Public Opinion,
- Mass Communication Research,
- Filmic Narrative,
- Persuasive Communication and
- New Technologies.
More information about the instructor, you can become in this link:
Learning Material
The most important content area in the course’s Web-site is dedicated to the “course contents”. Here you can find the online lectures, the readings, and the audiovisual material that you need to succeed in this course. I have divided the course contents in 14 learning units. Some of them are still work in progress. To create a Web-site for the course is a tremendous effort that needs a considerable amount of time. I have been working on it for several months – and hope to finish the course contents area in the next weeks. All the material you need for the midterm exam is already available, though. We organize each weekly schedule based on those contents. However, You should start exploring the contents as soon as possible, since you must decide the topic for your case study.
As I said in the syllabus, this online course is reading intense. You will find the contents in three main formats:
Online Lectures (HTML documents)
Readings (mostly PDF documents)
Streaming Media (videos)
In addition to the learning material that you can find in every learning unit, we will intensively work with two books:
Graber, Doris A. and Johanna Dunaway. 2014. Mass Media and American Politics (11th Edition), Washington D.C.: CQ Press.
This book is available in CCSA’s bookstore. You can also find some affordable options in Amazon: Mass Media and American Politics
Zuboff, Shoshana. 2019. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, New York: PublicAffairs.
Zuboff’s book is also available in Amazon at a reasonable price: Age of Surveillance Capitalism
These two books will be specially relevant in the second phase of the course, after the midterm exam.
About the Course Contents
We will analyze the relationship between Mass Media and political power. In the first section of the course, we focus on the nature of political power, with special emphasis on the role of public opinion. In a democratic society, there seems to be an agreement that political power flows from public opinion. Walter Lippmann was the first author who systematically studied the triangular relationship between public opinion, political power and mass media. The course explores the actual effects of Mass Media on individual and society, as well as the implication of those effects on the political game. We will pay special attention to the shifting mass communication paradigm brought about by the brutal penetration of new digital technologies.
Goals
This course helps us
- Understand how new digital communication technologies are changing the media landscape and challenging the status quo.
- Identify the social and political impact of this paradigm change
- gain a deep insight into the effects of Mass Media on individual, society and politics,
- know the contemporary Media landscape, including regulations and governmental control,
- understand how new digital technologies have changed the rules of the game in contemporary politics,
- become aware of how the digital revolution, in particular social media, might contribute to phenomena like populism, political radicalization, or the shrinking of the private sphere, and what this development implies for the democratic process.
Grading Elements
| Examinations | ||
| Midterm Exam | 25% | |
| Final Exam | 35% | |
| Blogs | ||
| Case Study | 25% | |
| Case Study Presentation | 5% | |
| Participation | 10% |
Examinations
The midterm and the final exam will have the same format: Short essay questions. You can perfectly answer each essay question in around 200 words. The final exam covers the contents of the whole course.
You will have 90 minutes available for the midterm (5 questions) and 3 hours for the final exam (10 questions). All the examinations will be available the whole day scheduled for the exam in the corresponding folder in Blackboard Learn. Please, be aware that time starts running when you begin the assessment.
Case Study (+ Presentation)
In this assignment, you must focus on a specific case that illustrates any of the topics related to to the course contents. It may be an example of misinformation, disinformation or fake news. You could also select a case of media surveillance or any of the mass media effects studied in the course (agenda setting, cultivation effect, instrumental use of news). The stronger you feel about the topic, the more likely you will find interesting material in your research. I encourage you to discuss with me your ideas to make sure that you selected case is suitable for this assignment. You are also welcome to send me drafts sot that I can give you feedback to improve the final submission.
This assignment encompasses a class presentation of about 10-15 minutes. You will have to present to your fellow students the main findings and the conclusion of your case study. The presentation will make 5% of your final grade.
Participation
An active and positive participation in the class dynamic is expected. Students can also improve the participation grade bringing up current issues related to the contents of the course.
Interaction with the Instructor
Please, use the “Contact the Instructor” area in the course’s main menu to ask questions related to this course. I monitor my Blackboard Learn courses daily, and check regularly your messages.
I will also hold office hours for those students who want/need a face-to-face interaction with the instructor.
Office hours schedule:
M: 8:30 – 10:30 am
T: 1:30 – 2:30 pm
F: 12:10 am – 2:10 pm
You can contact me anytime to make an appointment if you cannot make it during the office hours. We can always schedule virtual (zoom) meetings outside the official office hours.
Please, follow the announcements every day.
Good luck!
Technical Issues with Blackboard Learn
If you have any technical issue with the online learning system, please contact the help-desk at CCSU (860) 832 1720.