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Purpose
This project has 2 goals: 1) to give you a chance to work with the code that underpins the digital environments we use on a daily basis and 2) to begin our study of Internet culture by looking at the culture of a specific online subcommunity. The coding part of this project speaks to the larger digital literacy goals of this class, providing valuable skills with professional, personal, and civic applications. The cultural study component provides a specific case for applying, evaluating, and buliding on the critical concepts/questions this course asks about why, how, and under what conditions we use the Internet in 2019.
Components
Begin your study of Internet culture by researching a specific digital community, a group that interracts primarily online (although it can have a face-to-face component). Choose a community you participate in or one you can observe thoroughly in the next few weeks. See sample projects below for ideas.
Based on your observational research (and optionally including interview(s) with members) write an ethnographic report on this culture (see Nayar, Williams, DeLuca) using evidence from your observations to describe:
- what the community is: its size and level of activity, the purpose/uniting factor of the community, how members learn about the community and join
- Search popular publications and library databases to see if others have researched this or similar digital communities. If so, include others' findings for comparison with your own.
- the platform or digital space where the community interacts
- who owns, operates, and design it?
- its technical features: what do user profiles include? what kinds of communication are possible?
- how public/visible is it?
- the characteristics of community members
- how members present themselves and their identities, and--based on this--the apparent demographic characteristics of members like gender, race, age, linguisitic background, etc
- the relationship between members' online and offline idenities
- are there different types of members in terms of the material they communicate or how other community members treat them?
- the kinds of interactions that happen between members:
- what kinds of content do they communicate about? to what extent is this related to offline events?
- what role do the technical functions/capabilities of the digital environment within which the community operates play in this communication?
- for what purposes are they communicating? (see Bakardjieva)
- if the community is moderated, how does this moderation work? what kinds of content gets moderated?
- the distinctive language/terminology, interaction style, etc used by this culture that distinguishes it from other online groups --> this criteria is a good litmus test for whether a group you're considering constitutes a distinctive, active digital community
- your history/involvement with and knowledge of this community
Based on your ethnographic research:
- what kind of "virtual togetherness" in Bakardjieva's terms does this community demonstrate, and why?
- which of the cyberculture issues discussed by Nayar, Williams, and DeLuca are addressed by this community, and how do they shape members' interactions and the culture of the community as a whole?
- To what extent are these factors shaped by the purpose of the community, ownership/moderation/technical parameters of its platform (see Arola), and the types of members it has?
- • How do your findings about this community compare to what other have said about this or similar digital communities?
Design & Style
This project will be produced on your website, using carefully-crafted and organized text agumented with images. Drawing on the our in-class workshops on 4/10 and 4/22, you'll modify the code of your CSS/HTML template to create a digital text that
- is reachable using website navigation
- satisfies screen-reading expectations for a text that is navigable, using short-ish paragraphs, and left alignment
- takes advantage of the multimedia affordances of digital texts to include visuals that augment your written analysis
Stylistically, your writing should appeal to those who participate in and/or are interested in this community. This means your writing will likely differ from a traditional academic paper, with the goal of usefully communicating your findings back to the community about which you're writing. Your language still needs to be precise and carefully-chosen, but the tone/vocabulary/etc of it should be tailored to the community you're writing about.
Sample Projects
Criteria
Content
- Identifies community and explains general qualities (size, activity, purpose, visibility, how members join)
- Describes platform/digital space (ownership, design/interaction, moderation)
- Describes community members (demographics, self-presentation, online/offline interaction, member types)
- Characterizes community members' interactions (content, mechanisms, purpose)
- Describes distinctive cultural characteristics of community (language, interaction style, etc)
- Secondary research: Draws on others' ideas to provide concepts for analysis and interpretation of digital culture (course readings and/or existing research on digital community)
- Explains own involvment with/knowledge of community
- Analysis of community (comparison with existing research, virtual togetherness form, cybercultural issues, relationship of these to community's platform)
- Writing style: This is a research project is of interest to community members and those interested in Internet culture as a whole. Write in a style that reflects the conventions of the community, in terms of tone, diction, use (or not) of 1st person, etc.
- Organization: Arrange information in a reader-friendly way that introduces concepts then expands on them; provides guidance for readers via previewing/signposting; uses transitions between sentences/paragraphs/sections; uses headings to visually organize content
- Citation: cites primary and secondary sources used via hyperlink (reflecting online referencing conventions)
Design
- Alters CSS/HTML templates to create a page/set of pages for project
- Presents project content in a navigable way for screen reading, using either nested pages or anchor links
- Includes visuals (embedded posts, screen captures, etc) illustrating what the digital community looks like to augment description
Timeline
- April 3: project introduced
- April 5: begin brainstorming & examining potential commuinities to study; look at sample projects
- April 10: begin website design
- April 17: complete skeleton/outline & notes draft of project
- April 22: design check-ins & troubleshooting
- April 24-26: draft conferences
- April 29: project due before class