CMST 3900 – Rhetoric of Cyberculture
Fall 2005
Lab 4
Step 1:
Visit at least 6 journals or blogs, spend time reading entries that interest you and give you a sense of the person who wrote these entries.
Step 2:
Visit an on-line community (a discussion group, mud/mush/moo, etc.). Spend some time either interacting or lurking in this community so that you get a sense of how people interact and what the rules of interaction are.
Step 3:
After (or during) building your website for your creative project, reflect on the various issues raised in class about the way that the internet changes the nature of the self and community. Write an informal style blurb or journal entry (about 150 words; more if you need it) that considers any of the following questions and add your blurb to your website.
* The way that personal identities on the net blur the line between public and private
* The nature of the identities constructed on line as "authentic" or "inauthentic" and "fixed" or "fluid"
* The relationship between identity and community on line
* Whether or not identity on_line is utopian and liberatory or hyper_surveillance.
DUE DATES:
Questions
1. What blogs or journals did you surf? Briefly describe the common features that you found.
2. What community did you visit? Briefly describe some of the features of that community.
3. What do Kollock and Smith mean when they ask, "To what extent can online interaction and communities be structured so as to encourage honest signaling and identity persistence? And to what extent is a known, stable identity a desirable thing for the person and for the community?" Based on your experience of the lab, what is your answer to this question?
4. Dahlberg identifies six components necessary for deliberation in the public sphere. Based on these six components Do you think that the internet enhances or reduces public deliberation? Give an example from the internet to illustrate.
5. Sherry Turkel writes, "Like the anthropologist returning home from a foreign culture, the voyager in virtuality can return to the real world better able to understand what about it is arbitrary and can be changed." What does she mean by this? Do you agree or disagree that this is possible? Why?
6. David Chandler argues that "The medium of web pages offers possibilities both for the ‘presentation’ and shaping of self which are shared neither by text on paper or face_to_face interaction." What are some of the differences between presentation of self face_to_face, in a diary/journal/writings, and on a homepage and why are they important?
7. Several authors from this section discuss the way that CMC, particularly web pages, are a form of self_fashioning, a technology of the self, or a way to construct the self. What do these concepts mean? Do you agree that the internet and CMC provides ways to construct the self? What kind of self can be constructed?
8. Steve Rubio writes that "problems arise out of the solipsistic nature of home pages....There is a kind of community happening here, but the relationship of home pages to that community is uncertain." What does this quote mean? Do you agree? Why or why not?
9. What is the relationship between identity and community? Do you think the internet changes the nature of that relationship? Why?
Paper 4
After you have spent some time exploring the possibilities of identity and community on line, write an essay in which you answer explore any of the controversies raised in class discussion or in class readings. In your essay be sure that you 1) have a clear thesis or position statement which you defend in your essay; 2) define your terms and support your definitions with class readings; 3) use at least four class concepts from class readings, discussions, and lectures since Lab 3; 4) support your position with quotes from four class readings since Lab 3; and 5) support your position with examples from your lab experience.
Grading Criteria:
1. Ability to draw concepts from the reading material into your essay.
2. Ability to demonstrate understanding of concepts from course readings, lectures and discussions.
3. Significance and appropriateness of concepts chosen for discussion in the essays.
4. Fit between concepts and illustrations.
5. Specificity and amount of support material from readings, lectures and discussions to illustrate the concepts
6. Thoughtfulness and insightfulness of arguments.
7. Coherence of essay--ability to organize ideas and create an argument.
8. Writing mechanics.