Outline

Overview

The Internet is a communications and media infrastructure that supports constant economic and social change, as well as being integrated into the routines of our everyday life across the planet. Internet Transformations critically examines the online technologies, platforms and industries at the heart of these changes. It introduces key skills in analysis, evaluation and critique of these objects, situated in a historical context. It also interrogates the implications of emerging internetworked phenomena such as the internet of things, augmented reality and algorithmic cultures.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit	Media and Communications
Credit points	6
Prerequisites ?	12 credit points at 1000 level in the Digital Cultures major or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Media and Communications or (12 credit points at 1000 level or 2000 level in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship major) or (18 credit points at 1000 level in any of Anthropology, Art History, Computer Science, Design Computing, English, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, History, Information Systems, Information Technology, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology or Sociology)
Corequisites ?	None
Prohibitions ?	ARIN2100
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Joanne Gray, j.gray@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s)	Jennifer Hagedorn, jennifer.hagedorn@sydney.edu.au
	Sulagna Basu, sulagna.basu@sydney.edu.au
	James Baguley, james.baguley@sydney.edu.au
	Chika Anyanwu, chika.anyanwu@sydney.edu.au
	Mahsa Salamati, mahsa.salamati@sydney.edu.au
	Manan Luthra, manan.luthra@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Assignment	Journal exercises journal entries	20%	Week 05 Due date: 04 Sep 2022 at 23:59	3 x 400 word
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Hypertextual essay Online essay	35%	Week 09 Due date: 09 Oct 2022 at 23:59	1300 wds
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Critical analysis + infographic Online analysis	45%	Week 13 Due date: 06 Nov 2022 at 23:59	2000 words
Outcomes assessed:

Assessment summary

Detailed information can be found in Canvas

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name	Mark range	Description
High distinction	85 - 100
Distinction	75 - 84
Credit	65 - 74
Pass	50 - 64
Fail	0 - 49	When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	Introduction: The Internet as a Communications Medium and Socio-Technical Infrastructure	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 02	Internet Ideas and Imaginaries	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 03	Interests, Politics and Internet Economics	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 04	Internet Institutions and Governance	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 05	Digital Platforms and the Sharing Economy	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 06	Governing the Internet: Content Moderation and Online Harms	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 07	Governing the Internet: Policy & Regulation	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 08	Augmented Reality - guest lecture Mark Pesce	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 09	Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies: Guest lecturer Prof. Jason Potts, Director, Blockchain Innovation Hub, RMIT	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 10	Networked Activism guest lecture Dr Olga Boichak	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 11	What are your digital rights? Guest lecturer Assoc. Prof. Fiona Martin	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 12	The Future is Now: Robotics, AI and the Internet of Things guest lecturer Josh Harle	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 13	Review	Lecture (1 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance: According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.
Lecture recording: All lectures will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.
Preparation: Students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

All readings for this unit can be accessed through the Library eReserve, available on Canvas.

Week 1. Introduction: Situating the Internet as a Communications Medium

Berners-Lee, Tim (2020) ’30 years on, what’s next #fortheweb’, https://webfoundation.org/2019/03/web-birthday-30/
Hafner, Katie and Lyon, Matthew (1998), Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet. New York: Touchstone, pp. 43-81.

3. Noble, Safiya U. (2018) A society, searching. In Algorithms of Oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. New York: New York University. pp. 15-63.

4. Janet Abbate (2017) What and where is the Internet? (Re)defining Internet histories, Internet Histories, 1 (1-2): 8-14

Week 2. Ideas and Imaginaries about the Internet

1. Castells, Manuel (2001) ‘The Culture of the Internet’, in M. Castells, The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 36-64.

2. Kelty, Christopher M. (2014) ‘The Fog of Freedom’. In T. Gillespie, P. J. Boczkowski and K. A. Foot (Eds.) Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society. MIT Press. pp 196-220

3. Karpf, Dave (2018) ’25 Years of WIRED Predictions: Why the Future Never Arrives’, WIRED, 9 October. https://www.wired.com/story/wired25-david-karpf-issues-tech-predictions/.

4. Lusoli, Alberto, and Turner, Fred (2021), ‘“It’s an Ongoing Bromance”: Counterculture and Cyberculture in Silicon Valley—An Interview with Fred Turner. Journal of Management Inquiry 30(2), pp. 235-242.

Week 3. Internet Interests, Politics and Economics

Popiel, Pawel (2018) ‘The Tech Lobby: Tracing the Contours of New Media Elite Lobbying Power’. Communication, Culture & Critique 11(4), pp. 566-585.
Benkler, Yochai (2006), The Wealth of Networks, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 29-34.
Quiggin, John, and Potts, Jason (2008), ‘Economics of Non-Market Innovation and Digital Literacy’, Media International Australia, 128, pp. 144-150.
Mansell, Robin, and Steinmueller, W. Edward (2020), Advanced Introduction to Platform Economics. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, pp. 35-54.
Suzor, Nicolas P. 2019. How Copyright Shaped the Internet. In Lawless: the secret rules that govern our lives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 92-122.

Week 4. Internet Institutions & Governance

Internet Society (2014) Who Makes the Internet Work? The Internet Ecosystem. https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/who-makes-it-work/.
Mueller, Milton (2017) Will The Internet Fragment? Sovereignty, Globalization and Cyberspace. Oxford: Polity Press, Ch. 5.
Gillespie, Tarleton (2017) ‘Governance by and through Platforms’, in J. Burgess, A. Marwick & T. Poell (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media, London: SAGE, pp. 254-278.
O’Hara, K., & Hall, W. (2018). Four Internets: The Geopolitics of Digital Governance (No. 206). Centre for International Governance Innovation. https://www.cigionline.org/publications/four-internets-geopolitics-digital-governance

Week 5. Digital Platforms and the Sharing Economy

John, Nicholas A. (2018) Sharing Economies. In The Age of Sharing. Cambridge: Polity. pp. 69-97
Martin, Fiona (2019) The Business of News Sharing, In Sharing News Online: Commendary Cultures and Social Media News Ecologies. F.Martin and T.Dwyer. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 91-127
Van Dijck, J., Poell, T. & de Waal, M. (2018) The Platform Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 5-32 (‘The Platform Society as a Contested Concept’).
de Kloet, J., Poell, T., Guohua, Z., & Yiu Fai, C. (2019). The platformization of Chinese Society: Infrastructure, governance, and practice. Chinese Journal of Communication: The Platformization of Chinese Society, 12(3), 249–256.

Week 6. Governing the Internet: Content Moderation and Online Harms

Custodians of the Internet: Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social Media. Yale University Press. pp. 1-23.
Massanari, Adrienne (2017) #Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit’s algorithm, governance, and culture support toxic technocultures. New Media & Society, 19(3): 329–346.
Roberts, Sarah T. (2019) Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 33-72.

Week 7. Governing the Internet: Policy and Regulation

Picard, R. G., & Pickard, V. (2017a). Essential Principles for Contemporary Media and Communications Policymaking. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: University of Oxford. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/essential-principles-contemporary-media-and-communications-policymaking.
Flew, T. Martin, F. & Suzor, N. (2019) Internet regulation as media policy: Rethinking the question of digital communication platform governance. Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 10(1), 33–50.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (2019). Digital Platforms Inquiry: Final Report- Executive Summary. Canberra: ACCC, pp. 4-38.
Schlesinger, P. (2020) After the post-public sphere. Media, Culture & Society, 42(7–8), 1545–1563.
Napoli, P. (2019). What If More Speech Is No Longer the Solution? First Amendment Theory Meets Fake News and the Filter Bubble. Federal Communications Law Journal, 70(1), 57–104.

Week 8. Augmented Reality (Mark Pesce)

1. Pesce, Mark (2020) Augmented Reality. Cambridge Polity – reading TBC

2. Jones, Nick 2020. Immersion: entering the screen, In Spaces Mapped and Monstrous: Digital 3D Cinema and Visual Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.

Week 9. Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies (Jason Potts, RMIT)

Jason Potts, Ellie Rennie and Ana Pochesneva (2019), ‘Blockchain and the Creative Industries’, Provocation Paper, RMIT University. https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2019-11/apo-nid267131.pdf
Samer Hassan and Primavera De Filipi (2021) ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization’, Internet Policy Review 10(2), DOI: 10.14763/2021.2.1556.
Mitchell Clark (2021), ‘NFTs, explained’, The Verge, 11 March https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq

Week 10. Networked Activism

Bennett, W. Lance and Segerberg, Alexandra (2012). ‘The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics’, Information, Communication & Society 15(5), pp. 739-768.
Couldry, Nick (2015) ‘The myth of 'us': digital networks, political change and the production of collectivity’. Information, Communication & Society, 18 (6): 608-626.
Carlson, Bronwyn (2019) ‘Disrupting the master narrative: Indigenous people and tweeting colonial history.’ Griffith Review, 64: 232-244.

Week 11. What Are Your Digital Rights? (Fiona Martin)

1. Goggin, G., Vromen, A., Weatherall, K., Martin, F., Webb, A., Sunman, L., Bailo, F. (2017) Executive Summary and Digital Rights: What are they and why do they matter now? In Digital Rights in Australia. Sydney: University of Sydney. http://digitalrightsusyd.net/research/digital-rights-in-australia-report/

2. Karppinen, K. (2017) Human rights and the digital. In Routledge Companion to Media and Human Rights. H. Tumber & S. Waisbord(eds) Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge pp 95-103.

Week 12. The Future is Now: Robotics, AI and the Internet of Things

1. Stark, Luke, Greene, Daniel and Hoffmann, Anna Lauren (2021) ‘Critical Perspectives on Governance Mechanisms for AI/ML Systems’, in Jonathan Roberge and Michael Castelle (eds) The Cultural Life of Machine Learning. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 257-280.

2. Andrejevic, Mark and Burdon, Mark (2015) ‘Defining the Sensor Society.’ Television & New Media. 16(1): 19–36

3. Bunz, M. & Meikle, G. (2018) Speaking Things. In The Internet of Things, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, pp 45-75.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. demonstrate an understanding of the history, politics, economics and cultures of the internet and networked technologies
LO2. demonstrate skills in, and professional orientation to, web, social media and mobile media production
LO3. understand the affordances and limitations of online media and communications production software
LO4. discuss social and cultural issues arising from networked change
LO5. analyse and critique emerging internet phenomena eg. mixed reality, internet of things, smart cities.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

Thanks for your valuable feedback last semester, and especially for your appreciation of the real world relevance of this unit. As well as changing the lectures and tutorials in semester 2, 2021 to introduce new topics we have added video materials, and removed the social media participation requirement due to the difficulties for international students of accessing Western platforms, and concerns about student privacy and misuse of personal data. We have also updated and clarified the assignment task descriptions.

Additional information

RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING

Readings that could prove useful for your assessment items include:

Albarran, Alan B. (2013) The Social Media Industries. New York: Routledge

Bruns, Axel (2018) Gatewatching and News Curation: journalism, social media and the public sphere. New York: Peter Lang.

Bucher, Taina (2020) Facebook. Cambridge: Polity.

Bunz, Mercedes and Meikle, Graham (2020) The internet of Things. Cambridge: Polity.

Burgess, Jean, & Green, Joshua (2019) YouTube: online video and participatory culture. Cambridge: Polity Press. Second Edition.

DuPont, Quinn (2019) Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains. Cambridge: Polity.

Farman, Jason (2014) The Mobile Story: Narrative Practices with Locative Technologies. New York: Routledge.

Gillespie, Tarleton (2018) Custodians of the Internet. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Gillespie, Tarleton, Boczkowksi Pablo and Foot, Kirsten A. (eds) (2015) Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

Graham, Mark and Dutton, William (eds) (2014) Society and the Internet. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Greengard, Samuel (2015) The Internet of Things. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

Hunsinger, Jeremy, and Senft, Theresa (2015) The Social Media Handbook. London: Routledge.

John, Nicholas A. (2017) The Age of Sharing. Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press

Leaver, Tama, Highfield, Tim and Abidin, Crystal (2019) Instagram. Cambridge: Polity.

Lievrouw, Leah and Loader, Brian (eds) (2020) Routledge Handbook of Digital Media and Communication. New York: Routledge.

Levy, Steven (2020) Facebook: The Inside Story. UK: Penguin Business.

Lovink, Geert (2016) Social Media Abyss, Critical Internet Cultures and the Force of Negation, Cambridge and Malden: Polity.

Marolt, Peter and Herold, David Kurt (eds) (2017) China Online: Locating Society in Online Spaces. London: Routledge.

Murthy, Dhiraj (2018) Twitter. Cambridge: Polity.

Martin, Fiona and Dwyer, Tim (2019) Sharing News Online: Commendary Cultures and Social News Ecologies. London: Palgrave Macmillan

Molitorisz, Sacha (2020) Net Privacy: how we can be free in an age of surveillance. Kensington, NSW: New South Publishing.

Moore, Martin and Tambini, Damian (2018) (eds) Digital Dominance: The Power of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Noble, Safiya Umoja (2018) Algorithms of Oppression. How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: New York University Press.

Phillips, Whitney (2014) This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship Between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Qiu, Jack Linchuan (2016) Goodbye iSlave: A Manifesto for Digital Abolition. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Sampson, Tony, Maddison, Stephen and Ellis, Darren (2018) Affect and Social Media: Emotion, Mediation, Anxiety and Contagion. Rowman and Littlefield

Thomas, Julian. et al., (2016) Measuring Australia’s Digital Divide. The Australian Digital Inclusion Index. Swinburne University of Technology/Telstra, Melbourne.

Van Dijck, José (2013) The Culture of Connectivity. A Critical History of Social Media. New York: Oxford University Press.

Van Dijck, Jose, Poell, Thomas and De Waal, Martijn (2018) The Platform Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Warf, Barney (ed) (2018) SAGE Encyclopedia of the Internet. London: SAGE.

Wilken, Rowan and Goggin, Gerard (2015) Locative Media. New York: Routledge.

Wu, Tim (2016) The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads. New York: Knopf.

Zuboff, Shoshana (2020) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. New York: Basic Books.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect

Current students

ARIN2610: Internet Transformations

Semester 2, 2022 [Normal day] - Remote

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect