Politics of the Internet

The central question for this course is if or how the Internet changes the politics of the world in which we live. For our purposes, politics will be defined broadly to include issues such as identity, organization, stratification, and relative power. We will put this question into an historical context, compare the Internet with other media, and consider international implications. We will review the utopian expectations that some held at the birth of the Internet, the cynical expectations of their detractors, and allow for the possibility of creative and unexpected answers. We will pay special attention to the question of what sorts of information and ideas are communicated by the Internet, both by examining a wide range of Internet communication and by creating and evaluating our own web pages. Students enrolled in this course should expect to take an active role investigating this open-ended question and presenting their findings to the class. Students taking this course will be assessed on the basis of how well they practice and improve liberal arts skills in research, critical analysis, and written and oral communication.

Assignments and Assessment:

1. Present a good and bad web page to the class. Conducted in groups of 2. (15%)
2. Group research project on the impact of an Internet activity. Conducted in groups of 4-6. Research is to involve both secondary reading and gathering original data. Create a web page, present it to the class, and revise it. (25%)
3. Write a 'term web page' on a topic relevant to the politics of the Internet. (30%)
4. Class participation. Complete required readings and be prepared to answer written and oral questions in class. Make a creative contribution to classroom learning. (20%)
5. Evaluations of peers' work To be submitted following class presentations. (10%)

More information on expectations and formats for each of these assignments will be presented in class. Students who miss deadlines will only be allowed to make-up the work if the circumstances are truly exceptional, tragic and/or beyond their control. Some leniency may be shown if problems are discussed in advance. Regular attendance is expected as specified by university policy and failure to attend regularly may be sanctioned as specified by university policy. Academic dishonesty may receive the harshest sanctions allowed by university policy. Students who would like to improve their grade may do extra assignments or revise their work, but must first consult with the instructor. Students seeking honors credit and graduate students will be required to complete additional assignments and should consult with the instructor.

Required books available at the bookstore:

David Bell, An Introduction to Cybercultures (New York: Routledge, 2001).

Elaine Ciulla Kamarck and Joseph S. Nye (eds.), Governance.com (Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution, 2002).

Simson Garfinkel, Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly and Associates, 2000).

Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in an Interconnected World (New York: Vintage Books, 2001).

Most other required readings can be accessed via the online version of this syllabus at http://www.marquette.edu/polisci/Syllabi/182McCormick.htm.

Tentative Schedule

Readings marked with an asterisk are recommended, but optional. Students should be alert to announcements regarding changes in page numbers and dates.

Part I: The Big Picture

I. Introduction. (August 26-28) Technological Determinism, Media, the Internet, and Public Sphere

David Bell, An Introduction to Cybercultures (New York: Routledge, 2001), 1-28.

*NTIA, “Online Activities,” in A Nation Online: How Americans are Expanding their Use of the Internet (2002) pp29-34.

II. HTML Composition (September 2 & 4) Basics of creating a web page. Web Design. Evaluating Web Pages.

NCSA, “A Beginner's Guide to HTML&rdquo

*WDG, “HTML 4.0 Reference”

Jakob Nielsen, “Content Design” from Designing Web Usability (Indianapolis: New Riders Publishing, 2000), pp.98-161.

*Margo Halverson, DesignSense For Presentations (Proximity Learning, 1999)

III. A History of Media and Power (September 9-11). Historical examples of the impact of new media technologies. Relationships between media and other social and political institutions. The development of the Internet.

(start reading Abbate, Inventing the Internet)

*Tom Standage, The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers (New York: Berkeley Books, 1998).

*Irving Fang, A History of Mass Communication: Six Information Revolutions (Boston: Focal Press, 1997).

*Edward S. Herman and Robert W. McChesney, The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism (Washington: Cassell, 1997).

IV. History of Internet (September 16-25)

Robert Cringley, “Nerds 2.0.1”

Janet Abbate, Inventing the Internet (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1999). [Accessible via Marqcat]

*John Naughton, A Brief History of The Future: The Origins of the Internet (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999).

V. Internet Ideals (September 30-October 2)

Howard Rheingold, “Introduction,” from The Virtual Community.

John Perry Barlow, “A Declaration Of Independence of Cyberspace”

*John Perry Barlow, “The Economy of Ideas: Selling Wine Without Bottles on the Global Net”

Part II: Topics

VI. Internet, Community, and Identity (October 7-9)

Julian Dibbell, “A Rape in Cyberspace”

David Bell, An Introduction to Cybercultures (New York: Routledge, 2001), 92-186.

VII. Internet and Economics (October 14-23)

Manuel Castells, The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 64-115

NTIA, “Computer and Internet Use” and “The Unconnected” in A Nation Online: How Americans are Expanding their Use of the Internet (2002) pp10-28, 75-86.

Chen, Boas, & Wellman, “The Global Villagers” in Wellman & Haythornthwaite (eds) The Internet In Everyday Life (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), pp74-114.

*Thomas H. Davenport and John C. Beck, The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001).

VIII  Privacy and Surveillance (October 28 & 30)

Simson Garfinkel, Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century (Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly and Associates, 2000).

*Electronic Privacy Information Center, ”The USA PATRIOT Act”

IX. Internet and Ideas (November 4-13)

Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in an Interconnected World (New York: Vintage Books, 2001).

*Michael Pfahl, “Giving Away Music to Make Money: Independent Musicians on the Internet” First Monday v6n8 (August, 2001).

*Kostas Kasaras, “Music in the Age of Free Distribution: MP3 and Society,” First Monday v7n1 (January 2002)

X. Internet and Democracy I: China (November 18 & 20)

Nina Hachigian, “The Internet and One-Party East Asian States” Washington Quarterly vol. 25 n. 3 (Summer, 2002) pp. 41-58.

Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman, “Empirical Analysis of Internet Filtering in China” (2003).

*Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor Boas, Open Networks Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2003).

XI.  Internet and Democracy II: The United States (November 25-December 4)

Elaine Ciulla Kamarck and Joseph S. Nye (eds.), Governance.com (Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution, 2002).

*God Hates Fags

*Storm Front

*Project Vote Smart