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In the film Digital Disconnect – Fake News, Privacy and Democracy Robert McChesney claims that in their pursuit of profits companies like Amazon, Meta (Facebook & Instagram) and Google have created a media infrastructure that threatens democracy. Joan Donovan (who will be speaking on campus on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 6 p.m. Freeman Auditorium, HUB-Robeson Center) describes our media ecosystem as a Digital Influence Machine that uses “technologies for surveillance, targeting, testing, and automated decision making designed to make advertising – from commercial to political – more powerful and efficient.” https://datasociety.net/library/weaponizing-the-digital-influence-machine/. In this Deep Dive you’ll be reflecting on your own use of this “machine” to understand what’s going on in the world around you.
The purpose of this writing assignment is to:
(1) Reflect on the routine ways in which you use media to stay informed about what’s going on in the world (from the local to the global) around you.
(2) Consider the personal and social implications of your own and other’s use of media to understand the world and act rationally in it.
To get started on this Deep Dive:
(1) Watch the Digital Disconnect film assigned for homework during Week 9 of our class https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2204264/pages/homework-for-week-9
You can also download the transcript of the film from CANVAS f you want to cite specific content in your Deep Dive.
(2) Reflect on what you’ve learned about the commercial logic that shapes the media “production process” from watching Digital Disconnect and browse the Recommended Sources below.
Once you’ve done so you can begin to publish your Deep Dive in response to the Guiding Questions Provided.
DEEP DIVE FORMAT REQUIREMENTS
Please organize your Deep Dive into THREE sections, as follows:
1. Describe how you use Digital, Social, and “Old” media to stay informed about the world around you. Be sure to provide at least one specific example of how you have recently used media to get up to speed on some issue or problem that you were interested in.
2. Discuss how confident you are that your own media use makes you an informed citizen who understands how the world works and what’s going on around you. Please refer to at least TWO of the Recommended Sources to help you think critically about your own media consumption.
3. Discuss how confident you are that other people’s media use makes them informed citizens who understand how the world works and what’s going on around them. Please refer to at least TWO of the Recommended Sources to help you think critically about other’s media consumption. DEEP DIVE FORMAT REQUIREMENTS
Please organize your Deep Dive into THREE sections, as follows:
1. Describe how you use Digital, Social, and “Old” media to stay informed about the world around you. Be sure to provide at least one specific example of how you have recently used media to get up to speed on some issue or problem that you were interested in.
2. Discuss how confident you are that your own media use makes you an informed citizen who understands how the world works and what’s going on around you. Please refer to at least TWO of the Recommended Sources to help you think critically about your own media consumption.
3. Discuss how confident you are that other people’s media use makes them informed citizens who understand how the world works and what’s going on around them. Please refer to at least TWO of the Recommended Sources to help you think critically about other’s media consumption.
RESOURCES FOR THIS DEEP DIVE ASSIGNMENT:
– How far-right groups use memes to radicalize peopleHow far-right groups use memes to radicalize people
https://radio.wpsu.org/2022-09-25/how-far-right-groups-use-memes-to-radicalize-peoplehttps://radio.wpsu.org/2022-09-25/how-far-right-groups-use-memes-to-radicalize-people
– The Ugly, Embarrassing Spectacle of ‘Milling’ Around OnlineThe Ugly, Embarrassing Spectacle of ‘Milling’ Around Online
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/03/russia-ukraine-invasion-twitter/624168/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/03/russia-ukraine-invasion-twitter/624168/
– nytimes.com
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/26/opinion/culture/social-media-war-ukraine.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/26/opinion/culture/social-media-war-ukraine.html
– Weaponizing the Digital Influence MachineWeaponizing the Digital Influence Machine
https://datasociety.net/library/weaponizing-the-digital-influence-machine/https://datasociety.net/library/weaponizing-the-digital-influence-machine/
– Opinion: These responses to Kanye West are truly frightening
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/11/opinions/kanye-west-antisemitism-responses-filipovic/index.htmlhttps://www.cnn.com/2022/10/11/opinions/kanye-west-antisemitism-responses-filipovic/index.html
Too Tired? Too Anxious? Need More Time? We’ve got your back.