LONDIE T. MARTIN, PH.D.

University of Arizona School of Information Resources & Library Science 1515 East First Street Tucson, AZ 85719

TEACHING PORTFOLIO
520.621.0242 londiem@email.arizona.edu www.londietmartin.com

social media and ourselves

course description

fall 2013 & spring 2014 / 230 students per section

This course is designed as a gateway to understanding how social media sites influence and are impacted by ourselves, as well as the role of social media in our relationships. This course, with its focus on social media sites in particular, will examine the various implications and functions of social media in contemporary times. The study of new media takes place across disciplinary divides and from multiple theoretical perspectives. This course will thus explore social media research from across academic traditions. With a focus on both theory and practical applications, this course gives learners opportunities to think intellectually about how mobile technologies and being online impacts daily living, personal health, individual success, and interpersonal relationships.

required textbooks & materials**

Gerbaudo, Paolo. Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism. London: Pluto Press, 2012. Mandiberg, Michael, ed. The Social Media Reader. New York: New York UP, 2012. **You will need to purchase a classroom response devicea ResponseCard NXTfrom the UA Bookstore by Tuesday, January 28 (you will need it in class on this day). Alternatively, an iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, or other Internet-capable device that supports AJAX, Javascript, and HTTP requests can be used as a response device. For instructions on how to use your Internet-capable device, visit this website: uits.arizona.edu/services/classroom-response-devices/student.

course objectives
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to: 1. Understand and engage with popular and academic definitions of social media. 2. Explain the differences between social media and traditional mass media. 3. Identify and describe the rhetorical, political, economic, and spatial contexts that have shaped the emergence of social media. 4. Compare and contrast the ways that people interact with and present themselves to others in online and offline worlds. 5. Complicate the online-offline binary. 6. Explore and evaluate the ethical and political implications around social media.

summaries of major assignments

Face-to-Face Lecture Polls (10%) Approximately ten times during the semester, the Tuesday face-to-face class meeting will include a Lecture Poll in which students will participate by using their classroom response devices. Students can expect the Lecture Poll to take place at any time during the regularly scheduled Tuesday class. Students who do not respond to the poll will receive zero credit. Missed Lecture Poll points cannot be made up without a well-documented, verifiable excuse (for example, a physicians medical excuse or a note from the Dean of Students).

Social Media and Ourselves Syllabus

Formal Quizzes (10%) Multiple-choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions. Approximately 10-15 questions. These will be administered through D2L. There will be six quizzes given during the semester. D2L quizzes will be held on Thursdays, and they will be available from 8:00 am until 10:00 pm. For specific dates, please see the Course Calendar. Once you begin the quiz, you will have 75 minutes to complete it. You will have two attempts at the quiz, and D2L will record the highest of your two scores. D2L Discussion Groups (10%) The class will be divided into 15 discussion groups of approximately 15 students each. For approximately 10 weeks (see the Course Calendar for specific dates) students will post an answer to the weekly discussion question. Questions will be based on an activity, a reading, and/or a video. Questions will be posted in the News section of our D2L course website by 5:00 pm the Wednesday before a scheduled discussion. Additionally, I will announce the question in class the Tuesday preceding the D2L discussion deadline. The deadline for student answers and responses will be 10:00 pm on Thursdays. The deadline is firm. To receive full credit, students will need to: Post an answer to the question using specific and relevant examples from class readings and lectures; use personal experience sparingly and where appropriate. Comment on at least 2 postings written by their classmates. If a students answer does not directly engage with the question topic, they will receive zero credit for the assignment. If a students responses to their group members are not constructive and thought-provoking (e.g., simple statements such as I agree or Awesome! What an interesting perspective!), they will receive zero credit for the assignment. To receive full credit, students will need to go beyond simply agreeing or disagreeing with their classmates postings; instead, strive for postings that demonstrate your understanding of the response, articulate your position relative to the response, and move the conversation in new and interesting directions. A specific scoring guide for the D2L Discussion Groups assignment can be found on our D2L course website. Rhetorical Prcis Paper (20%) Each student will submit a Rhetorical Prcis Paper. A rhetorical prcis is a short paragraph that scholars use to condense and synthesize key information about a specific academic articles argument, purpose, and audience. The rhetorical prcis is an extremely useful writing tool that will help you throughout your academic career from research papers to studying for course exams! We will use the Rhetorical Prcis Paper assignment to work toward one of the goals of this course: to become familiar with academic conversations about social media. Your paper should use at least three scholarly sources discovered through independent research. In addition to these three sources, you may make thoughtful use of relevant course readings where appropriate (e.g., to establish context in your introductory paragraph or to tie things together in your concluding paragraph). You may decide the focus of your paper, but remember that the topic should be clearly and meaningfully related to a specific academic conversation about social media. Midterm Exam (25%) and Final Exam (25%) Multiple-choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions. Approximately 50 questions administered via Scantron forms. Both the midterm and final exams will be held in our face-to-face classroom. Arrive on time with a No. 2 pencil.

LONDIE T. MARTIN, PH.D.

teaching portfolio

Social Media and Ourselves Syllabus

daily course schedule

TS = Tweets and the Streets
Week & Topic Date Thu 1/16 Tue 1/21 Thu 1/23

SMR = The Social Media Reader

Daily In-Class Activities

D2L = Item is on our course D2L website

Readings & Assignments Due at the Beginning of Class

For online meeting days, please have headphones ready so you can enjoy and interact with multimedia files.

1 2

Introduction to the Course What Is Social Media?

Welcome! Course information, syllabus, themes Introductions from TAs Face-to-face classroom, lecture

o Read:

Formal Quiz #1 Online D2L discussions Face-to-face classroom, lecture Online D2L discussions

Complicating Privacy

Tue 1/28 Thu 1/30

Pavlik and McIntosh, excerpt from Converging Media [D2L] o Read: Rosen, The People Formerly Known as the Audience [SMR] o Read: Baym, Ch. 2, Making New Media Make Sense [D2L] o Watch: Williams, The Voices of Twitter Users or Listening to Twitter Users [D2L] o Read: Turkle, Ch. 8, Always On [D2L] o Read: Turkle, Ch. 9, Growing Up Tethered
[D2L]

Spatiality and the OnlineOffline Binary

Tue 2/4 Thu 2/6 Tue 2/11 Thu 2/13

Face-to-face classroom, lecture

Nock, Too Much Privacy? [D2L] o Read: boyd, Participating in the Always-On Lifestyle [SMR] o Watch: Enriquez, Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo [D2L] o Read: Turkle, Ch. 11, Reduction and Betrayal [D2L] o Read: Barlow, Cyberhood vs. Neighborhood
[D2L]
o Read:

o Read:

Formal Quiz #2 Online D2L discussions Face-to-face classroom, lecture Watch film streaming on D2L: The Social Network. Please note, streaming works best from a campus computer. Online D2L discussions Face-to-face classroom, lecture

Bridge: From Being Alone to Being in Coalition

6 7

Race, Racialization, and Social Media

Tue 2/18 Thu 2/20 Tue 2/25 Thu 2/27

Formal Quiz #3 Online D2L discussions Review session for midterm exam Midterm exam (face-to-face classroom)

Lange, Living in YouTubia: Bordering on Civility [D2L] o Listen: Massey, Is the World Really Shrinking? [D2L] o Read: Turkle, Ch. 12, True Confessions [D2L] o Watch: Turkle, Connected, but Alone? [D2L] o Read: McIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack [D2L] o Read: Crosley-Corcoran, Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person... [D2L] o Read: Scalzi, Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is [D2L] o Read: boyd, White Flight in Networked Publics: How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook [D2L] o Read: Everett, Have We Become Postracial Yet? Race and Media Technologies in the Age of President Obama [D2L]

Midterm Exam

LONDIE T. MARTIN, PH.D.

teaching portfolio

Social Media and Ourselves Syllabus

Week & Topic

Date Tue 3/4 Thu 3/6

Daily In-Class Activities Face-to-face classroom, lecture Introduce Rhetorical Prcis Paper assignment sheet and scoring guide Online D2L discussions

Genders, Sexualities, and Social Media

Networked Hearts, Networked Bodies

Tue 3/11

Face-to-face classroom, lecture Review Rhetorical Prcis Paper assignment with examples Discuss appropriate topics Online D2L discussions Spring Break, no class Face-to-face classroom, lecture

Thu 3/13

10 11

Readings & Assignments Due at the Beginning of Class o Read: Doorn, The Ties That Bind: The Networked Performance of Gender, Sexuality and Friendship on MySpace [D2L] o Read: Cooper and Dzara, The Facebook Revolution: LGBT Identity and Activism [D2L] o Watch: Broadbent, How the Internet Enables Intimacy [D2L] o Due: Upload your 2-word Optional Rhetorical Prcis Paper topic proposal to D2L by 10:00 pm on Sunday, 3/9. For instructions, see the Rhetorical Prcis Paper assignment sheet. o Read: Hasinoff, Sexting as Media Production: Rethinking Social Media and Sexuality [D2L] o Read: Gray, From Websites to Wal-Mart: Youth, Identity Work, and the Queering of Boundary Publics in Small Town, USA [D2L] o Read: Gershon, Un-Friend My Heart: Facebook, Promiscuity, and Heartbreak in a Neoliberal Age [D2L]

Spring Break Online Collaboration

3/153/23 Tue 3/25

o Read:

Thu 3/27

Formal Quiz #4 No D2L discussion this week Face-to-face classroom, lecture

12

Testing the Limits of Online Collaboration

Tue 4/1 Thu 4/3

Vaidhyanathan, Open Source as Culture/Culture as Open Source [SMR] o Read: Hyde et al., What Is Collaboration Anyway? [SMR] o Due: Rhetorical Prcis Paper final draft is due in the appropriate D2L dropbox by 10:00 pm. o Read: Lessig, REMIX: How Creativity Is Being Strangled by the Law [SMR] o Watch: Shirky, How Cognitive Surplus Will Change the World [D2L] o Read: Anderson, From Indymedia to Demand Media: Journalisms Visions of Its Audience and the Horizons of Democracy
[SMR]
o Read:

Formal Quiz #5 No D2L discussion this week

Coleman, Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls: The Politics of Transgression and Spectacle
[SMR]

o Watch:

13

Activism and Mobilized Publics, part 1

Tue 4/8 Thu 4/10

Face-to-face classroom, lecture Online D2L discussions

Poole, The Case for Anonymity Online [D2L] o Watch: Shirky, Why SOPA Is a Bad Idea [D2L] o Read: Stalder, Between Democracy and Spectacle: The Front-End and Back-End of the Social Web [SMR] o Read: Gerbaudo, Ch. 1, Friendly Reunions: Social Media and the Choreography of Assembly [TS]

LONDIE T. MARTIN, PH.D.

teaching portfolio

Social Media and Ourselves Syllabus

14 15

Week & Topic

Date Tue 4/15 Thu 4/17 Tue 4/22

Daily In-Class Activities Face-to-face classroom, lecture Online D2L discussions Face-to-face classroom, lecture

Activism and Mobilized Publics, part 2

Activism and Mobilized Publics, part 3

Readings & Assignments Due at the Beginning of Class o Read: Gerbaudo, Ch. 2, We are not guys of comment and like: The Revolutionary Coalescence of Shabab-al-Facebook [TS] o Read: Gerbaudo, Ch. 3, We are not on Facebook, we are on the streets!: The Harvesting of Indignation [TS] o Read: Gerbaudo, Ch. 4, The hashtag which did (not) start a revolution: The Laborious Adding Up to the 99% [TS] o Due: Optional revision of your Rhetorical Prcis Paper is due in the appropriate D2L dropbox by 10:00 pm.

16 17 18

Activism and Mobilized Publics, part 4

Thu 4/24 Tue 4/29 Thu 5/1 Tue 5/6 Thu 5/8 Tue 5/13

Formal Quiz #6 No D2L discussion this week Face-to-face classroom, lecture Online D2L discussions

o Read:

Gerbaudo, Ch. 5, Follow me, but dont ask me to lead you!: Liquid Organising and Choreographic Leadership [TS] o Read: Gerbaudo, Conclusion [TS] o Watch: Surowiecki, The Power and the Danger of Online Crowds [D2L]

Last Class

Last class! Final thoughts and review session for final exam Reading Day (no class meeting) Final Exam, 1-3 pm

Final Exam

LONDIE T. MARTIN, PH.D.

teaching portfolio