Social Media Intro -- Tufts University EXP-50-CS Spring 2014 -- Lecture 1

EXP-0050-CS #exp50 exp50.com @j_littlewood Jesse Littlewood, 1/15/14

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Social Media:Participatory Culture and

Content Creation in SocietyTufts University

EXP-0050-CS

Twitter: #exp50


Instructor ProfileBackground

Strategist with EchoDitto, a Somerville-based

digital strategy and technology firm

www.echoditto.com

• Non-profits and socially responsible businesses

• Use the internet to achieve organizational

goals ($ and power)

• Advertising, engagement marketing,

membership building and fundraising

• Websites, campaigns and more

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Logo

http://about.me/jesse.littlewood

@j_littlewood

[email protected]


Interactive exercise!

How much do you agree/disagree with these statements?









The People Formerly Known as the AudienceThink of passengers on your ship who got a boat of their

own. The writing readers. The viewers who picked up a

camera. The formerly atomized listeners who with modest

effort can connect with each other and gain the means to

speak— to the world, as it were.

-- Media Theorist Jay Rosen

http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html


ConversationsMore telephone than megaphone


What is social media?

Map it out.


Early social networksThe Republic of Letters

Franklin

Voltaire


Early social networksThe Victorian Internet


Early social networksThe Victorian Internet


How did we get here?

Drag picture to placeholder or click icon to add


1.0 – Print, but online

Credit: Patrick Johnson


2.0 – Participatory Web



Web 3.0 (?)



The Sematic Web?

• Semantic web.

• Personalized.

• Computers make the meaning.

• Web of data

• Internet of things


How social media can make history:www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html

Clay Shirky


Course Description



Fundamentals of what we call “social media”

Part 1: Foundations


Digital Identities

• Representations and

presentation of the self

• Offline vs. online identity

• New mediums and

methods for personal

connection

• Instantly and globally

connected to each other

• Facebook making us

lonely?

• “Selfie” was OED’s word of

the year


Social Networks and Social Media Communities• Technological

affordances:

design and

technology shape

behavior.

• Community

norms.

• Islands, or a

global village?


Economics of Social Media• Economic impacts of

social media

• Rise of the peer-to-

peer economy

• Free to use, so who is

really the product?


Privacy and Security

• Privacy paradox

• The more you

share, the more

valuable you are

• Digital “native”

users & digital

“immigrants”


Effects of social media in society

Part 2: Topics


Information, Crowdsourcing and the Filter Bubble• Wikipedia and

Reddit’s hive-mind

• Eroding of the line

between rumor and

truth

• One third of U.S.

adults get news via

Facebook

• The filter bubble


Journalism

• Sources can “go

direct”

• The “pothole

paradox”

• Addressing the

filter bubble


Government and Civic Engagement• Government

as a platform

• “Internet

freedom”

• Kingslayer?


Politics, Power and Social Movements

• Weak ties vs.

strong ties

• Arab spring

• Platforms, or

actors?


Anonymity

• Anonymity

as a former

hallmark of

the

internet

• Nymwars

and real

name

policies


Digital Folk Culture(s)

• Memes

• Anonymity-

as-culture

• Indigenous

internet

folk art


Public Policy

• Copyright

and

creativity

• Crime

• SOPA, PIPA


Part 3: What’s Next

• Present

final

projects

• Discussion

on future

of social

media



Evaluation & Assignments

Class Presentations - 20%

• 7-minute lightning talk

Written Assignments - 30%

• Three Two 500-word

responses (keep under 500

words!)

Final Project - 40%

• Research paper

• Or project pre-approved (e.g.

major Wikipedia entry, non-

profit marketing plan, digital

interactive work)

Participation – 10%

• Attendance

• Class participation

• Have completed the

readings (~30-50

pgs/wk)

• Twitter -- #exp50

• Computers in the

classroom: pros/cons

UPDATED 1/18/14


Class Expectations

Twitter:

Expect that you will add

two articles or links per

week

#exp50 is the class

hashtag

Response papers:

- Research (assigned task)

- Readings

(quotes/citations)

- Discussion (what you

think)


For 1/29/14. All readings will be on Trunk by 1/17/14

Assignment for Next Class

• Rosen, Jay, The People Formerly Known as the Audience. The Social Media

Reader. Ed. Michael Mandiberg. New York: New York University Press,

2012. pp. 13-16

• danah m. boyd. Participating in the Always-On Lifestyle. The Social Media

Reader. Ed. Michael Mandiberg. New York: New York University Press,

2012. pp. 71-76

• danah m. boyd, Nicole B. Ellison. Social Network Sites: Definition, History,

and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Volume

13, Issue 1, pages 210–230, October 2007

• Baym, Nancy. Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Chapter 2, Making

new media make sense. Pp 22-49.

• Marche, Stephen. Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? The Atlantic. Vol. 209 No.

4 May 2012. pp.60-69


For Monday 1/29/14

Deliverable for next class

Track and examine your usage of a social network site (eg,

Facebook) over the course of a week (details will be

available on Trunk by Friday).

How and why do you use it? Compare your behavior to

that profiled in the week’s readings. Write a 500-word

response paper that discusses your findings.