5/14: Essay 3 Workshop, continued

Essay 3 Workshop, Continued: Thesis and Outline for Essay 3

1. Here is the prompt for Essay 2
2. Create: A document to write Essay 3 in your Google Drive folder

• Place the thesis on top
• Create an outline to be filled up as you decide on sources

From now on 

You should be working on Essay 3, then Essay 4, and on your Wikipedia contribution.

If you are turning in Essay 2 or Essay 3:  When you have completed the writing process, turn in

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback
• Draft 2
• Essay Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

5/9: Essay 3 Workshop

Class

Essay 3 Workshop: Thesis and Outline for Essay 3

1. Evaluation of Theses

• Theses for Essay 3 here:
• Criteria to consider for the evaluation of theses:

• Does it address the prompt? Here is the prompt for Essay 2: 
• Is it an argument?
• Is it concise?
• Is it clear?
• Is it sexy? 
• (Optional) Is it a map of the paper

2. Create: A document to write Essay 3 in your Google Drive folder

• Place the thesis on top
• Create an outline to be filled up as you decide on sources

From now on 

You should be working on Essay 3, then Essay 4, and on your Wikipedia contribution.

If you are turning in Essay 2 or Essay 3:  When you have completed the writing process, turn in

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback
• Draft 2
• Essay Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

5/2: The Internet/WWW and the Politics of Knowledge

Class

Essential questions: How is knowledge produced? Whose knowledge is disseminated? Who benefits from this knowledge? What is your place in the knowledge society? 

1. Some Context (work on these with a partner)

A. Consider: Information Society versus Knowledge Society   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_society

B. Consider: The Production of Knowledge    http://camellia.shc.edu/literacy/tablesversion/lessons/lesson1/production.htm

C. Consider: Information Privilege

1. What information resources do you have access to by virtue of your institutional affiliation that others do not?

2. What are the potential effects of this “information divide” for those who find themselves on either side of it? See also, “digital divide”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide

3. What are the structures that perpetuate this system, and what can challenge these structures?

4. What responsibilities (if any) do you think are associated with privileged access to information?

5. Research:  Some Open Access / Free Culture Organizations 

2. The Case of Wikipedia

A. an encyclopedia (a tertiary source)
B. a wiki
C. a community

Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge

But what does the Wikipedia community mean by "the sum of all human knowledge?" Let's consider Wikipedia as a rhetorical tool:    https://docs.google.com/document/d/150oQzyeijHgs_BTGYTnQ7QLsAPKjjMU3dKx0QHwOGXA/edit?usp=sharing

Keeping a healthy skepticism in mind, experience the scope of the Wikipedia project:

What did we edit 2015? https://youtu.be/Rm1LKcHD1VE

And its attempt to bridge the digital divide:

Wikipedia Zero  https://youtu.be/ZaZf6h0Pus8

For next class

• Complete all journals
• Decide on a topic for Essay 3, narrow the topic down, and start asking essential questions about the topic in this form: https://goo.gl/forms/T2broPszmQEIszHZ2

4/30: Internet Search and Bias

If you plan to turn in Essay 2,  turn in 

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback (2 reader reports)
• Draft 2
• Essay Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

Class

• Quick report on Cadwalladr
• Introduction to Using Sources and Writing Body Paragraphs
• Complete the Exit Questions: https://goo.gl/forms/cgcyno5ErSrpvlWb2
  

For next class

• Watch/discuss: Eli Pariser, “Beware online ‘filter bubbles.’” (TED Talk and transcript): https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles
• Read: Wikipedia brochure
• Write: Journal 10 (the last one!) by reflecting on the ideas discussed in the brochure and answering some pointed questions

Today! Fake News Poetry Workshop

Fake News Poetry Workshop: Radical Digital Media Literacy  

Room E-229 

Zine Making & Poetry Workshop on Monday, April 30 from 1:00-3:00pm in Room E-111

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL - Hosts include: the LaGuardia Community College student literary magazine The Lit (http://www.laguardia.edu/English/The-Lit/) and Professor Lucy McNair; students from Professors Tuli Chatterji and Christopher Schmidt's classes. Writing guidance will be provided with poet Lisa Cohen.

This series of experimental poetry workshops/community conversations was created by Alexandra Juhasz (Chair of Filmby Read more about it here:https://medium.com/the-operating-system/10-tries-100-poems-alexandra-juhasz-field-n...

4/25: The Web and (Mis) information

Reflections from last class: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K2fab-0OlHALibhGoIP8qnMWij9hV-Xb5q9kfs_Eqoo/edit?usp=sharing



Class

Essential Question: How does the World Wide Web help and hinder the sharing of information and the creation of a knowledge society?

1. From Nineteen Eighty-Four

2. Read: The Onion: “Facebook User Verifies Truth of Article by Carefully Checking it Against Own Preconceived Opinions”

3. Report on Shane

4. Reflect and Discuss:

Problem 1: What's legitimate information? What is dubious information? How can we tell the difference? Why does being able to tell the difference matter?

Step 1: Individually, evaluate and report:

A. Here is a sample of the homepage for Slate.com. Identify which of the numbered items is a news story, and which is an advertisement. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_Egjt-4g-yZaUgza0pnTEM0TGs/view?usp=sharing

B. Does this post provide strong evidence about the conditions near the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant? Explain your reasoning.  http://imgur.com/gallery/BZWWx

What about the original posting? https://twitter.com/san_kaido/status/603513371934130176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

C. Why this tweet might and might not be a useful source of information?https://twitter.com/moveon/status/666772893846675456?lang=en

More on the Fukushima Mutant Flowers

• As  reported by The Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3171748/Land-mutant-daisies-Radiation-causes-flowers-grow-strangely-near-site-nuclear-plant-suffered-meltdown-tragic-tsunami.html
• As reported by Weather.com: https://weather.com/science/nature/news/mutant-flowers-japan-fukushima-famous
• As reported by National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150723-fukushima-mutated-daisies-flowers-radiation-science/
• As fact-checked by Snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/nuclear-mutant-daisies/

Step 2: With a partner, define  and report: What is and is not "fake news"?

• Satirical news from a site like The Onion (“Dolphin Spends Amazing Vacation Swimming With Stockbroker”) 
• The daily clickbait in our social media feeds (such as the one written by the "new yellow journalist" Shane).
• Outright invented news, like pieces that claimed, just before the election, that Pope Francis had endorsed Donald J. Trump, or that Donald Trump had once said that “Republicans are the dumbest group of voters.”
• Erroneous interpretation of a fact that is distributed without fact-checking (as with the  Fukushima Mutant Flowers). 
• "Native advertising": Advertisement passing as news (as in Slate.com).  
• News that shows a highly partisan bias. 

 Consider: Are some of these forms of unreliable news more dangerous than others? Which? Why?

Problem 2: How do the Internet and Web help and hinder fake news? 

Individually, reflect and report: In a recent letter to the world, Sir Tim Berners-Lee reminded us that he imagined the world wide as "an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries." In what ways do the specific characteristics of the Internet and the World Wide Web, especially in its 2.0, 3.0, and mobile versions contribute to the boom of fake news?

Possible solutions: Explore and report: CUNY Graduate School Fake News Cheat Sheet 

See also :

Fact-checking sites:

• http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/  
• http://www.snopes.com/
• http://www.politifact.com/
• To check the authenticity of images, reverse-Google them to find their origins: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1325808?hl=en

Browser plug-ins:

• BS Detector (Chrome, Firefox, Safari): http://bsdetector.tech 
• Fake News Alert (Chrome): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fake-news-alert/aickfmgnhocegpdbfnpfnedpeionfkbh  
• This is Fake (Chrome, for Facebook feed): https://www.thisisfake.org/

For next class

• Read Cadwalladr, “Google, democracy and the truth about internet search.”
• Write: Journal on Cadwalladr using the 7Ws

4/23: Mass and Targeted Surveillance

If you plan to turn in Essay 2,  turn in 

• Draft 1 
• Reader Feedback (2 reader reports)
• Draft 2
• Essay Checklist
• Any slips proving you have visited the Writing Center (B200) or SGA Tutoring

Class

More on algorithms:  https://datasociety.net/output/algorithmic-accountability-a-primer/

1. Lecture on the documentary Terms and Conditions May Apply

• If you have not watched  Terms and Conditions, you must do so now.
• If you have watched the documentary: Watch and react to 4 moments in Terms and Conditions: https://goo.gl/forms/lYE84NThnXdFusWm2
• Vocabulary: 
• Clip 1: The Onion, Stasi; 
• Clip 2: Pre crime, Minority Report, The Royal Wedding; 
• Clip 3: loophole, gag order, 4th Amendment

http://laguardia.kanopystreaming.com/playlist/1323442
Interview with Director Cullen Hoback

2. Lecture on The Guardian's "The NSA Files: Decoded"

React to the information in the NSA Files: Decode: https://goo.gl/forms/lYE84NThnXdFusWm2

Your reactions to both texts

3. Things to Come? "Big data meets Big Brother as China moves to rate its citizens"

4. Complete the Exit Questions: https://goo.gl/forms/cgcyno5ErSrpvlWb2

For next class

• Read: Shane, “From Headline to Photograph, a Fake News Masterpiece.”
• Write: Journal 8 on Shane using the 7Ws