Lives Online:
Cyber•Cultural•Studies

Required Texts & Materials

• Durham & Keller: Media and Cultural Studies: KeyWorks
• Johns, Chen & Hall: Online Social Research: Methods, Issues, & Ethics
• Thumb/Flash/USB Drive (at least 256MB)

Course Overview

Cybering, iPods, 3-D multiplayer gaming, flashmobs, video blogging, photoshop contests, and Web pages — only twenty years ago these were only possible in science fiction stories. Today many of them are parts of our daily lives. How are these and other facets of our technologically-infused experiences influencing our culture and our lives? Cybercultural Studies explores all of the aspects of our lives that we spend online, attempting to think critically about what these new forms of interaction, community, and identity mean for us as individuals and as a society. In this class we will examine prominent theories of cultural formation and organization and apply these theories to the lives more and more of us live online.

In his book Keywords, literary theorist Raymond Williams (whom we will read later in the semester), notes: “Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language” (87). As we will see in this course, defining what culture is, explaining what it does, and determining what our relation to it is, have been sources of contention for philosophers and academics from across the disciplines. As is the case with all complicated issues, there are no easy answers. It is my hope that through the work of this course, you will better understand and articulate your own theories of culture and cyberculture, and will gain awareness of your own complicity in them and your abilities to affect them.

In this course I am more interested in your ability to think through thorny, difficult issues than to memorize names, dates, and sound-bites from various famous theorists. This will be a challenging course, but one that will engage, head-on, with the bizarre, exciting, perplexing, and sometimes downright filthy worlds made possible through computers and digital technology. These are worlds we move into and out of every day, often without giving it a second thought. This course will give you the chance to stop and look around at what’s going on around you, and will give you the concepts and approaches to do it with style.

Assignments

Meditations

Throughout the semester you will compose ten (10) short (2-3 page, double-spaced) meditations on the various types of online cultures we will explore and discuss in class. These will be spaces for you to think through the issues and elements that are most important to those cultures, to do your own theorizing about them, and to reflect on the (inter)connections between cybercultures and cultures in the so-called real world.

As your own inspiration and insight is unlikely to follow a regular (and regulated) schedule, you may turn in the meditations as you complete them. That is, whenever you would like, with the following conditions:

• No more than two (2) meditations may be turned in during any calendar week (Monday through Friday)
• No meditation will be accepted after May 2 (the last regular day of class)

In the second week of classes I will give you more detailed information regarding the form and content of the meditations.

Quizzes

I will give “pop” quizzes throughout the term. These will not be difficult if you have completed the assigned readings. These are not be designed to challenge you (especially with some of the more difficult readings we will be doing), but to give you credit for doing the reading. You should expect a “pop” quiz every time we begin to discuss a new reading, which makes them not really pop at all.

Exams

There will be two examinations in this course: a midterm exam and a final exam. Both exams will have multiple parts. As each approaches, I will give you further information.

Class Participation

Attendance is mandatory. This course is designed to function as a seminar – which means that your participation in class discussion is necessary for the success of the course. Because of this, students who miss three or more classes risk failing the course. We have a lot of material to explore and work with in a short amount of time. Be prepared for the heavy commitment that the time spent reading and writing for this course will require. As you can see from the Course Calendar, we will be quite busy. Come to class on time and prepared to take part in conversation about the materials under study. If you cannot come to class, it is your responsibility to arrange to turn in written work on time, and to find out about subsequent assignments. All assignments will be posted to the course blog (www.uvm.edu/~reparent/112/) on the day they are discussed. This means that you will be able to discover for yourself what is due and when.

Students who are unable to attend the midterm exam will, with a valid, compelling excuse, be able to make up the midterm exam. Be aware that in the interest of fairness to the students who were able to attend the midterm exam, the make-up exam may be more challenging than the regular midterm.

There will be no make-up exam allowed for the final exam.

Students who miss more than three classes should consider withdrawing from the course and taking it again under better circumstances. This attendance policy means that you have one “no-questions-asked” absence allowed. Use it strategically. I do not want to know where you were or why you were there for your first two absences. Any absence after that, however, will require extensive and compelling documentation to avoid having a negative impact on your grade.

Students who feel that they are too shy to participate in class discussions must meet with me during my office hours, e-mail me, or IM me to discuss their thoughts on the course material to receive full credit for class participation. If you would feel more comfortable sharing your comments with me than with the entire class, I am willing to discuss your ideas with you and then bring your comments (anonymously reported) to the class’ attention for further exploration. This may be your first university seminar, so if you have any questions about class participation in a seminar course, or about my attendance policy, I encourage you to ask me.

Grading

I will grade your writing on the following bases: willingness to grapple with difficult and complex ideas, perspicacity in observing cultural scenes, evidence of serious and substantial consideration of the concepts from the course readings, clarity in communicating ideas, and the ability to use effectively the conventions of standard written English.

Final grades will be calculated as follows:

• Meditations – 30%
• Pop Quizzes – 15%
• Midterm Exam – 20%
• Final Exam – 25%
• Class Participation – 10%

Academic Integrity

THERE IS A ZERO TOLERANCE PLAGIARISM POLICY IN THIS COURSE. Do not do it, do not even consider it—if you copy another’s work, published or unpublished—you will fail the assignment, and quite possibly the course. I cannot emphasize this enough. Usually, it is desperation that drives a student to plagiarize—so if you are having problems, please contact me and I will help you.

IF YOU PLAGIARIZE, IT IS A SIGN THAT YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE STUDYING AT A UNIVERSITY, AND I WILL HELP YOU LEAVE.

The first offense will incur a zero on the assignment; the consequence of a second offense is failure of the course. All instances of plagiarism will be referred to the Center for Student Ethics and Standards for investigation and adjudication.

If, for whatever reason, you have any question about academic integrity whatsoever, please refer to UVM’s policy for clarification at your earliest possible convenience: www.uvm.edu/~uvmppg/ppg/student/acadintegrity.html.

An Important Note

If you have (or suspect that you may have) a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, I encourage you to contact both myself and UVM’s Office of Accommodation, Consultation, Collaboration & Educational Support Services (ACCESS), A-170 Living & Learning Center, 656-7753 (www.uvm.edu/~access) as early as possible in the term. The ACCESS Office will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodation for this course.