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April 04, 2007

Lecture: You can find information (search)

Key concepts: search engines as infrastructure, crawl/spider, index, query processor / engine, the politics of search engines, what determines search skill
Examples: make your own search engine, Google "bombing"

GUEST SPEAKER: Eszter Hargittai, Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (via videoconference)

About the speaker: Eszter Hargittai is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Sociology, and Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University where she heads the Web-Use Project. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University where she was a Wilson Scholar. Before joining the faculty at Northwestern, Eszter was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. She is currently a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

About the Web-Use Project: The goal of the research conducted in this group is to learn about how people use the Web in their everyday lives and in particular, how differences in Internet use may contribute to social inequality. Studies conducted by the Web Use Project have looked at differences in people's web-use skills, the evolution of search engines and the organization and presentation of online content, political uses of information technologies, and how IT are influencing the types of cultural products people consume. One current study focuses on the Internet skills and online activities of US college students.

Textbook: portions of 13: Media Uses and Effects

Read ONLY pp. 424-427("Media and the Economy") in Chapter 13, Media Uses and Effects, from Media Now. Key concepts: the productivity paradox of ICTs, job displacement, de-skilling, re-skilling

Class Reader: The Search

Bartelle, J. (2006). The Search. New York: Portfolio. pp. 153-157, 163-164, and 19-30. Password Protected Online Full-Text (PDF) [Get Password Help] Key concepts: algorithm, crawl/spider, index, query processor/engine, the long tail of search queries, what do people search for on the Internet? Eamples: 2bigfeet.com, digital camera sites on Google

Assignment: BLOG POST: The Identity Census

The Dyer article explains the evolution of photographic film stock starting in 1840. He explains how some identities "become established as normal" (p. 135) via features of the communication technology of photographic film. In this assignment, pretend you are in charge of an "identity census" to identify what features of identity are "established as normal" via communication technology. This blog post will be your Identity Census final report.

Part I. First, conduct an original survey of one of the kinds of communication content listed below and describe what is being "established as normal" in the content that you found. Discuss one (or more) of the identity categories mentioned in class that is of interest to you (race, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, age, occupation, religion, disability). Choose one of the following kinds of content to survey:

• All of the photographs or images in one printed issue of the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, or the New York Times
• All of the images in one printed issue of a thick, popular magazine
• All of the advertisements in one printed issue of a thick, popular magazine
• All of the characters in several commercial films
• All of the characters that appear on one channel in an evening of prime-time television
• All of the human characters that appear in several popular video game titles
• All of the characters that appear on advertisements during one evening of prime-time television.
• All of the characters that appear in the top videos in one category of Yahoo! Video, YouTube, or Google Video.
• Another example of content that contains images and is an equivalent amount of work.

You can choose your own method for this assignment. Here are some suggestions: You may want to count how often different features appear. You may want to discuss the way the identity category is portrayed. You may want to note what is linked to an identity feature (e.g., professors = absentminded). You may want to discuss signs of an identity category that are less obvious than the presence or absence of the category (rather than the presence/absence of women, you might also consider the use of pink colors, or notice an association between women and housework -- DO NOT USE THESE EXAMPLES, discover your own).

Part II. Be sure to explain both what you did for your census (what item you chose and how you looked for identity categories) and what you found (counts, examples). You must include at least one example image or table in your blog.

Part III. Finally, propose a possible (reasonable) explanation for the pattern. Specifically consider at least one of the following: Do you think that the ownership of the media matters? Is there a feature of communication technology that makes representing one identity category easier than others (as in Dyer)? Is there some feature of the infrastructure (who tends to be writers/actors/newspaper reporters, economic relationships, institutions) that produces this pattern?

TIP: It may help to compare your results to other resources like:

• Who Owns What?
• US Census American FactFinder
• Bunche Research Report (PDF)
• The Screen Actor's Guild Casting Data Reports
• Or other material you find on the web using keywords related to the identity feature you are interested in, combined with "research" and "media"

BONUS: Extra credit will be given if you unearth a particularly unusual, unexpected, or compelling pattern (like some of the more unusual patterns mentioned in class).

Post an answer of at least 250 words to your blog. DEADLINE: 11 a.m. -- one hour before class begins.

Movie Screening: The Tailenders

The Tailenders (2005, NR, 72 minutes)
a documentary by Adele Horne
7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 4
112 Transportation Building (click for map) on Matthews between Green and Springfield.
Open to the public. All are welcome.

Printable flyer: Download file (PDF, 1 page)

This screening is optional. It he being held to make it easier to see the required film. If you do not want to attend this screening, the film is available after Wednesday from Media & Reserve Services at the undergraduate library, or you can obtain the film on your own.