Lect6 technologies fall 2017
- 1. MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES Introduction to Media & Society Dr. Vincent Manzerolle October 30, 2017 1
- 2. This week… • Lecture time devoted to: 1. Announcement about half-way point in course, grades so far, etc. 2. Information literacy workshop, including distribution of worksheet required for assignment #2. • Media technologies lecture during second half: focus on surveillance and philosophical perspectives on the connection between communication technology and society. 2
- 3. Announcement: Half-way point in semester • Assignments returned at the midterm exam. See your lab leader if you have any questions. • Midterm grades posted to Blackboard. You can review your exam during office hours. • Remember that the course is not evenly weighted: • Assignment #1 = 15%, Assignment #2 = 25% • Midterm = 20%, Final = 30% 3
- 4. Assignment #2 – Media issue paper • Due November 20 in lecture (with worksheet) and on Blackboard. • See Blackboard for a detailed assignment instruction sheet and grading rubric. Read all instructions carefully. • Have questions? Ask in lab! Visit office hours! • Worksheet is a graded component of assignment #2. Worksheet for those attending today and is not on Blackboard. 7
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- 7. Problem: Information Overload • More information does not equal more knowledge. • More information does not mean better information. 15
- 8. 16 More Knowledge or TruthMore Information
- 9. Solution: Information Literacy! • How to assess sources, their accuracy, biases, and overall credibility. • EG: 17
- 10. Information literacy • A single day’s worth of news produces more information than a cultivated/well-educated person in the 1800s would absorb in a lifetime. • “Humans are producing such quantities of data – 2.5 quintillion bytes of data daily, to be precise – and on such a steep curve, that 90 percent of all existing data is less than two years old.” (Essif, 2015) • “A crucial skill in information society consists in protecting oneself against the 99.99% of the information offered that one does not want.” (Eriksen in Bauman, 2009, p. 162) 18
- 11. Information literacy • Then, there’s the question of accuracy of information – especially online. 19
- 12. Tips on finding sources General internet: • Google, Wikipedia, Medium, Wordpress etc. • Do not assume first links are most relevant for your purposes; find both “sides” of an issue; experiment with terms. • Use “advanced” search criteria to refine searches. • Look for .org or .edu sites • Multiple search engines? • Bing, DuckDuckGo • Triangulate online sources, try to find multiple sites that confirm a fact or piece of information, particularly if it is crucial to your argument. 20
- 13. Tips on finding sources News/journalistic: • Use databases at leddy.uwindsor.ca/communications • Experiment with terms, find ways to narrow, consider old and new. • What kind of newspaper or news company are you dealing with? • General interest, national focus, regional • Tabloid • Industry/interest focus (e.g. tech or entertainment press) • Does it have an offline publication? History? 21
- 14. Tips on finding sources Academic: • Once again, use databases at leddy.uwindsor.ca/communications • Consider taking a step back and think about debates larger than topic. • Look at journal “impact factor” • Journals should be “peer reviewed” • Experts in the field, diff from journalists • Specialized jargon, longer process to pub. • “Paywalls” 22
- 15. Tips on evaluating sources (not comprehensive!) General internet: • Strengths: starting point for overview, diversity, current. • Weaknesses: conjecture and credibility, Wikipedia issues. 23
- 16. Tips on evaluating sources (not comprehensive!) News/journalistic: • Strengths: journalistic professional standards and processes, current. • Weaknesses: media reporting on media, not as in-depth. 24
- 17. Tips on evaluating sources (not comprehensive!) Academic: • Strengths: experts on topic, peer review process, evidence-based. • Weaknesses: slow publishing, can be too narrow and theoretical. 25
- 18. Final advice for assignment #2 • Do not lose that worksheet! • November is always busy, so start early. • Seek help in lab, and during your lab leader’s office hours. Also consider services such as library research desk (leddy.uwindsor.ca/ reference-help-desk), writing help desk (leddy.uwindsor.ca/ writing-help). • I want correct APA style for citations and bibliography, but less concerned with other APA rules (e.g., running heads, exact format of title page). 26
- 19. BEST STRATEGY • Triangulate your sources! • Look for convergences or overlaps between a variety of sources. • Understand the strengths and weaknesses of each. • Do not just rely heavily on one source or one type of source. • Make sure you understand any differences among your sources. 27
- 20. Communication technologies and surveillance • This is, by my assessment, the most important societal issue relating to communication technologies. • More in-depth explorations of this issue can be found in other Communication, Media & Film “new media” courses, including 02-40-304 – an entire course on privacy, surveillance, and security & 02-40-200 ‘critical digital literacies’ • First, we will consider the technologies and agents of surveillance. 29
- 21. Technologies of surveillance • Proliferation of internet based or internet connected services. • Consider Netflix: as internet-distributed television, Netflix watches you as you watch Netflix. Allows for Netflix to be “algorithmic” media – an important idea from this week’s textbook chapter. 41
- 22. Technologies of surveillance • Or, consider “Hello Barbie”: an internet connected toy, connecting via wifi to a server so a child can have a conversation with Barbie. 42 • Or, Disney’s recent use of apps to surveil children.
- 24. Technologies of surveillance • Paralleling the proliferation of internet connected services and things is a proliferation of cameras in the last 10-15 years. • Surveillance cameras. • Smartphone cameras. • … and the recently announced Snapchat “Spectacles” or relaunch of Google Glass 44
- 26. ADVERTISING!
- 30. Agents of surveillance – government • Edward Snowden leaked NSA “PRISM” program in 2013. • More recent, fall 2016, case of Yahoo e-mail filter. 50
- 31. Agents of surveillance – government • Recently, both Twitter and Instagram blocked a London, Ontario, data mining firm called “Media Sonar” from their platforms (APIs). • This firm helped police services across North America in monitoring people, specifically protestors. • Read more: cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/twitter-bans-firm-police- protesters-1.3942093 53
- 32. Agents of surveillance – employers • Employer surveillance in the form of monitoring on the job, or screening prospective employees via social media. 55
- 33. Agents of surveillance – commercial data mining • Commercial/advertising surveillance: data mining for better and more efficient customized ad targeting. • Google makes money from advertising. Google sells audiences, as commodities, to advertisers. • Every Google user is also a producer of information. • Sophisticated user data derived from search, e-mail, documents, maps, YouTube, “okay Google” virtual assistant, Chrome browser, etc. 57
- 34. Google and the digital enclosure • Digital enclosure concept: the process whereby activities formerly carried out beyond the monitoring capacity of the internet are enfolded into that virtual space. Human behaviours are not new, but tracking them is. • This applies to Google, and an array of other platforms. • Personal data the new “oil,” a valuable resource. 58
- 35. The panopticon • Metaphor for conceptualizing surveillance. • Panopticon is a theoretical prison design from the 1700s: “all- seeing” circular design of constant visibility. • Guards in central tower could monitor all prisoners. • Prisoners could not see guards and, hence, never be sure if they were being watched at any exact moment. • Surveillance as a form of discipline, ensuring compliance and forcing people to self-regulate their own behaviour. 60
- 36. What is ‘technology’? What drives technological change? 66 Four Perspectives Instrumentalism Determinism Substantivism Constructivsm
- 37. Perspectives on technology • “Instrumentalism”: technology is a value-neutral tool that helps us achieve our goals more efficiently. 67
- 38. Perspectives on technology • “Determinism”: technology operates according to an inherent, internal logic; the effects of technology are imposed by the technology itself. 68
- 39. Perspectives on technology • “Substantivism”: technology operates according to its own inherent logic and at the expense of humanity. 69
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- 41. Perspectives on technology • “Constructivism”: technology is socially constructed and shaped by social forces. Technology develops in a socially contingent manner, i.e., it is contingent on the society that surrounds it; society shapes technology. 71
- 42. Four perspectives (as a matrix) Technology is…. Autonomous Human controlled Value-neutral Determinism Instrumentalism Value-laden Substantivism Constructivism 72 Theorizing surveillance as a panopticon… where does it fit?
- 43. Key concepts, examples, names Concepts: • Algorithmic media • Constructivism • Digital enclosure • Instrumentalism • Panopticon • Re-intermediation • Substantivism • Technological determinism Examples: • Examples (various) of government surveillance • Google’s data mining Names: • Edward Snowden 73