MC 7370: Seminar in New Media Research
Fall 2015, Instructor: Dr. Gi Woong Yun
Classroom: West Hall 203
Office: 321 West Hall
Voice Mail: 419-372-8638
E-mail: gyun@bgsu.edu
Class hours: Monday 6:00 - 9:00
Office Hours: MW9:30 - Noon or email appointment.
Syllabus on the Web: http://www.mediaresearchlab.org/giwoongyun/classes/mc7370/syllabus.htm

COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course will investigate diverse issues related to new media. Because of evolving nature of new media, readings and discussions will focus on developing research ideas. Many theoretical and methodological approaches on new media will be carefully examined for the students who want to develop their own research frameworks. However, it is difficult to cover all new media related topics because of the vastness of the new media research field. The instructor will carefully select major new media research frameworks and the class will primarily discuss those frameworks. In sum, this class will provide a training ground for students to devise their own research questions related to new media research.

SCHEDULE
Class discussions will move quickly and will assume knowledge of readings assigned for that day. The amount of reading is moderate, but you will need to read carefully and analytically.

ATTENDANCE
Attendance is the most basic responsibility of students who enroll in this course.

STUDENT CONFERENCE:
Do not hesitate to meet me in my office or call me at my office if you have any question on the course or have academic concerns. Please email (gyun@bgsu.edu) and make an appointment if you want to meet me outside my office hours.

ACADEMIC HONESTY
Academic honesty is the foundation of our teaching-learning relationship. BGSU Student Handbook classifies four types of academic honesty violation: Cheating; Fabrication; Facilitating academic dishonesty; Plagiarism. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated, and any student engaging in such conduct will automatically fail this course.

PROFESSIONALISM
Although the score that you earn from various activities may reflect your level of intellectual achievement in this course, it is not the only determinant factor of your final letter grade. In every aspect of your interaction with the instructor or classmates, you have to be professional. Professionalism includes, but is not limited to, (1) completing tasks and readings in a timely manner, (2) submitting class projects that look professional (no spelling or grammar errors and suitable to the task), (3) taking personal responsibility for your actions (for example, the computer ate your paper is not an acceptable excuse), (4) showing courtesy to others (no chatting and sleeping, no cellular phone, no instant messaging, and PDA in sight during class), and (5) undertake all class related communications in a professional manner. The instructor reserves the right to adjust the final letter grade downward if a student deems to have violated professionalism to a substantial degree during the semester.

READINGS
Readings are assigned in the class schedule below. This class will read books and articles.

ASSIGNMENTS (20 points * 12 weeks = 240 points)
You will need to post two research questions per week. Two research questions should be related to the assigned readings and should be followed by the explanations of them. The explanations should be less than several paragraph. Also, one of the research questions should have at least two hypotheses related to the research question. You will need to post research questions and hypotheses on the class Canvas by Thursday at noon.

TERM PAPER (see class schedule for deadlines)
1st draft (30 points)
Choose your term paper topic, write within two pages, and post the draft on the class BBS.
2nd draft (50 points)
Based on the 1st draft, elaborate ideas, and list references within 10 pages (excluding references or tables).
Final paper (120 points)
Final paper should be within 20 pages (not including references, figures, or tables). If you are planning on data collection(but do have have data yet), you can write up to research question and/or research method. In other words, you don't have to write result and/or discussion section for this term paper.
Class presentations (50 points)
Presentation your term paper at the end of the class.

FINAL GRADING SCALE

A =  91 to 100 percent
B = 81 to 90 percent
C = 71 to 80 percent
F = below 70 percent

CLASS SCHEDULE

Week01 (08/24): Introduction, a short reading (Benkler & Shaw, 2010) and discussion.
Required reading (article)
* Yochai, B. and A., Shaw (2010). A Tale of Two Blogospheres: Discursive Practices on the Left and Right. Berkman Center Research Publication No. 2010-6; Harvard Public Law Working Paper No. 10-33. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1611312

Week02 (08/31): Online identity
Required Reading (book)
* Life on the screen by Sherry Turkle

Week03 (09/07): Labor day Break

Week04 (09/14): Interactivity
Required Reading (articles)
* Rafaeli, S. (1998). Interactivity. In R. P. Hawkins, J. M. Wiemann, & S. Pingree (Eds.), Advancing Communication Science: Merging Mass and Interpersonal Processes (pp. 110-134). Beverly Hills, California: Sage.
* Yun, G. W. (2007). Interactivity concepts examined: Response time, hypertext, role taking, and multimodality. Media Psychology, 9(5), 527-548.
* Sundar, S. S., Xu, Q., & Bellur, S. (2010). Designing interactivity in media interfaces: A communications perspective. Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM SIGCHI), 2247-2256.

Week05 (09/21): Diffusion of innovation
Required reading (book)
* Diffusion of innovation by Everette Rogers

Week06 (09/28): Complex network
Required Reading (book)
* Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

Week07 (10/05): Power of socail network
Required Reading (book)
* Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives -- How Your Friends' Friends' Friends Affect Everything You Feel, Think, and Do by Christakis & Fowler
* TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_christakis_the_hidden_influence_of_social_networks?language=en

Week08 (10/12): Fall Break

Week09 (10/19): Term paper 1st draft due (class will discuss your chosen term paper topics, post your research topic on the class Canvas)

Week10 (10/26): Polarizations online
Required Reading (book)
* Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide by Cass R. Sunstein

Week11 (11/02): Recommendation/reputation system
Required Reading (book & articles)
* Long Tail, The, Revised and Updated Edition: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson
* Resnick, P. (2002). Beyond bowling together: Sociotechnical capital. In J. H. Carroll (Ed.), HCI in the new millenium (pp. 247-272). Boston: Addison Wesley.
* Carlos Jensen, John Davis and Shelly F. Farnham. "Finding Others Online: Reputation Systems for Social Online Spaces" Proceedings of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: CHI 2002, Minneapolis, MN, April 2002. pp 447-454.

Week12 (11/09): Crisis of newspapers and how to deal with it, Term paper 2nd draft due (noon on 11/06)
Required Reading (book)
* The Death and Life of American Journalism by Robert McChesney

Week13 (11/16): Game
Required Reading (book)
* Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal
* McGonigal's TED talk ( http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life.html )

Week14 (11/23): Net neutrality
Required reading (book & video)
* Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age by Dawn C. Nunziato
* For a broad background of net neutrality debate, see Bill Moyer's Journal on Net Neutrality ( http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/neutrality.html )

Week15 (11/30):Surveillance
Required Reading (book)
* Dragnet Nation by Julia Angwin

Week16 (12/07): Student presentations (see the schedule here), Final paper due (noon on 12/14)