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title: Digital Identities and Social Media 2020 @ ddinf Aarhus

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# Digital Identities and Social Media 2020 @ ddinf Aarhus 

![](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/608/418/0bd.jpg)
## 🎓 General information
**[click for Covid19-related information*](https://hackmd.io/@xpablov/rk7zKDgXP)**
*It is possible to stream the lectures, ~~but please let me know at least a day in advance. In such scenario,~~ a link to zoom would be provided in blackboard (zoom tab in the left menu.)


**Time**: Tuesday 11.00-14.00
**Location**: 5524-147  
**Instructor:** Pablo Velasco // pvelasco@cc.au.dk // http://pablov.me/  
Office: 5347 (Wiener building) room 117

The course introduces theoretical concepts that can help students understand and explain the role of the individual in digital culture, including theories about identity, subjectivity and various perceptions of the self, i.e. the relational, virtual, networked and algorithmic self. Further, the course introduces students to inductive, qualitative and exploratory research methods. The course focuses on interaction as the fundamental precondition for identity and sociality, and emphasizes different interpretations of identity and subjectivity, as well as newly established topics and issues relating to ethics and responsibility, cultural and social conventions, interpersonal communication and power structures in digital contexts


### 🔥 LINKS FOR THE COURSE
* HackMD course home: https://hackmd.io/@dism20/ Syllabus: https://hackmd.io/@dism20/SJPhbEeXv 
* Readings: can be seen and downloaded from the Perusall course web  
<!-- * Shared Pad: -->

**No materials are strictly required for the course, however you will need**:

* To create an account in [HackMD](https://hackmd.io) (put your username in the shared pad)
* To create an account in [Perusall](https://app.perusall.com) (course code: VELASCO-NNNV6)
(it is recommended to use the same username both in HackMD and Perusall)
* Markdown Syntax guide: https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax

### 1. Objectives and Topics of the Course
With the successful completion of this course, you will be able to reflect empirically and theoretically on subjectivity and identity in digitally mediated social contexts. You will be able to apply qualitative methods to generate data mediated by various sociotechnical elements, and perform analysis on such data using relevant theory.

To achieve these goals, you will:
1. Read theoretical essays and empirical studies
2. Explore concepts and contexts related to digital identity
3. Practice entry level foundational methods for qualitative inquiry
4. Conduct an ethnography of your own lived experience in digital culture

#### Topics:
The course can be divided into several related sub-themes. In each, course participants will discuss key issues, concepts, and concerns. Discussions will be augmented by experiments, exercises, and workshops. We will address cutting edge questions. Since there are no universally agreed upon answers to these questions, participants will not gain answers, but will gain a range of perspectives about how to continue to address these issues after they leave the course.

1. Identity and relationships: What does the concept of identity mean in the digital age? Do we have a single identity? Or do we cycle through various personalities in our everyday lives? How do contemporary enactments of identity influence personal and professional relationships.
2. Networked sociality: How do the networks underlying most digital media use influence us personally or socially? What difference does an algorithm make to one's expression, management, or negotiation of identity, whether in physical or online contexts? How do algorithms filter what we see, know, and understand to be true or meaningful in the world?
3. Qualitative inquiry methods: Several aspects are considered, including theories and foundations (such as inductive vs deductive research, positivist vs non-positivist models), general approaches to exploring lived experience (such as ethnography, phenomenology), methods for collecting or eliciting information (such as interviews, observation, and archiving), methods for categorizing and analyzing data (such as situational mapping, coding, thematizing), and methods for interpreting and writing ethnographic findings (such as narratives, vignettes and thick description).

### 2. Format and expectations of the Course
The course counts with 13 in-class sessions. However, you students are expected to work out of class in exercises and readings. A "theme week" may be included in the course.

#### 2.2. Readings and reading expectations
In-class readings: are listed in the course schedule and you should be provided with links to full content. You are expected to read and be able to discuss or answer basic questions about the content on the day the reading appears in the schedule. Keeping up with reading is one of the most important and yet most challenging requirements of the course.

#### 2.1. Active Participation, Attendance, and Evaluation
Your are expected to be well prepared for each class and to participate in discussions, group work, peer review sessions, workshops, and other class activities. You are expected to have read all the mandatory readings for the class day, and be ready to discuss and build upon it. Supplementary readings are suggested to enlarge the student’s understanding of the topic. Students are all required to deliver throughout the semester all of the Building Blocks. These have varied length requirements, which can be found in the “Building Blocks” section. The assignments must be submitted on Blackboard no later than their respective due dates.

### 3. Assignments
In class ad hoc assignments. Throughout the course, you may encounter pop quizzes on the readings, field experiments, presentation assignments, analytical coding and mapping exercises, and analytical writing exercises. These will be given during classes, as necessary or needed, and may involve homework.
Building block assignments: to start building the various elements of this research project and in preparation for the exam, participants will complete 6 Building Block assignments, which will be submitted and reviewed by the instructor.

### 4. Exam
The exam for this course is the assemblage of the Building Blocks created through the course into a single document, and must be delivered through Digital Eksamen in the exam date. More details about suggestions on how to organize the final document will be given throughout the classes.

#### Plagiarism
Watch out for accidental (or on purpose 😠) plagiarism! Read more and learn to avoid it on: https://library.au.dk/en/students/plagiarism/


## 🧱 Building Blocks
(Links to instructions for each block will be added)

**Submission time is before Mondays** (e.g. for BB1, the assignment has to be submittend before sept 14th, monday week 38). The assignment should be submitted through blackboard, but it can be a link to other documents (a HackMD page, like this one, a presentation, a pdf, or any other platform that you choose).

Most BBs will be visible and read by other students, and we’ll be discussing some of them in class.

**BB1: [Representation/Mapping](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/rJjs4lYXD)**
Due week 38
**BB2: [Media Tracking](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/HJRToA34D)**
Due week 40
**BB3: [Media Fast](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/SyYyGu1UD)**
Due week 43
**BB4: [Network ethnography](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/SkGixOnPP)**
Due week 45
~~**BB5:**~~
~~Due week 47~~
**BB5: [Final analysis](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/B1tza6aOD)**
Due week 49

<!--### EXAM-->


## 📅 Calendar
<span style="color:red">Calendar may be subject to changes, including readings. Remember to double check.</span>

| **W** | **DATE** | **TOPICS** | **DELIVERABLES / READINGS**                                                 |
| ----- | -------- |----------- | ------------------------ |
| 36    | 01 sep   | [**Introductory session**](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/HJXfdbHmP)| <span style="color:green">Start BB1</span><br> <br>☛ Baym, N. K. (2015). Personal Connections in the Digital Age (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Polity Press. (second edition!) **CHAPTERS 1, 2, 3** (80 p.) |
| 37    | 08 sep   | [**Identity and Digital identities**](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/rJc2I4bEv)    | ☛ Baym, N. K. (2015). Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Cambridge: Polity Press. (second edition!) **CHAPTERS 5, 6** (70p.) <br>☛ Questions of Identity. In K. Woodward (Ed.), Questioning Identity: Gender, Class, Ethnicity. London: Psychology Press. [37 pages] |
| 38    | 15 sep   | [**Introduction to Digital Ethnography**](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/HJnVO-HEw)| <span style="color:maroon">Submit BB1</span> <br> <span style="color:green">Start BB2</span> <br><br>☛ Pink, Sarah, Heather A. Horst, John Postill, Larissa Hjorth, Tania Lewis, and Jo Tacchi, eds. 2016. Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practice. Los Angeles: SAGE. **CHAPTER 5** <br>☛ Markham, Annette. 2018. “Ethnography in the Digital Internet Era: From Fields to Flows, Descriptions to Interventions.” In *The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research*, edited by Norman K Denzin and Yvonna S Lincoln. SAGE Publications, Inc. |
| 39    | 22 sep   | [**Tracking, Performance, and the quantified self**](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/ByffwTWSw)      | ☛ Jenkins, R. (2000). Categorization: Identity, social process and epistemology. Current Sociology, 48(3), 7-25. [24 Pages] <br>☛ Pearson, E. (2009). [All the World Wide Web’s a stage: The performance of identity in online social networks](https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2162/2127). First Monday, 14(3). [10Pages]  <br>☛ Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant Observation. Long Grove:Waveland Press. [Steps 2 to 4 -- total of 31 pages] |
| 40    | 29 sep   | [**Networks and Methods**](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/SkaheThrw)   | <span style="color:maroon">Submit BB2</span> <br> <span style="color:green">Start BB3</span> <br><br> ☛ Goodall Jr., H. L. (2003). What is interpretive ethnography? In Expressions of Ethnography: Novel Approaches to Qualitative Methods (pp. 55-63). Albany: SUNY Press. [9 pages] <br>☛ Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (2011). Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [chapter 1 and chapter 3 -- 54 pages] |
| 41    | 06 oct   | [**Networked sociality**](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/r15_cww8P)  | ☛ Marres, Noortje. 2017. Digital Sociology: The Reinvention of Social Research. Malden, MA: Polity Press. **CHAPTER 1** <br>☛ Spradley J. P. (1980). Participant Observation. Long Grove:Waveland Press. (step 5) <br>☛ Marwick, A. E., & boyd, d. (2014). Networked privacy: How teenagers negotiate context in social media. New Media & Society, 16(7), 1051-1067. [17 pages] |
| 42    | 13 oct   |        NO SESSION  |      (🥔 potato week)   |
| 43    | 20 oct   | *[THEME WEEK](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/Hk49FGsPD)    | <span style="color:maroon">Submit BB3</span> <br> <span style="color:green">Start BB4</span> <br><br>☛ Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism: The fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. PublicAffairs. **CH. 3 “The Discovery of Behavioral Surplus”**<br> ☛ Marwick, A. E. (2012). Social Surveillance in Everyday Life. Suveillance & Society, 9(4), 378–393.  |
| 44    | 27 oct   | [**Platforms and affordances**](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1381SPP8hkHQ6VQsPfwccq1IHAVLjwht9HGfwLA1B9So/edit?usp=sharing)   <br><br> *Guest*: Maximilian Schlüter <br><br> <span style="color:red">online session</span>|  ☛ Gillespie, T. (2010). The politics of ‘platforms’. New Media & Society, 12(3), 347-364. [17 pages]  <br>☛ Bucher, T., & Helmond, A. (2017). The Affordances of Social Media Platforms. In J. Burgess, A. Marwick, & T. Poell (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of social media (pp. 223-253). London: Sage. [30 pages] <br>☛ REMOVED ~~Dieter, Michael, Carolin Gerlitz, Anne Helmond, Nathaniel Tkacz, Fernando N. van der Vlist, and Esther Weltevrede. 2019. “Multi-Situated App Studies: Methods and Propositions.” Social Media + Society 5 (2): 205630511984648.[ ](https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119846486)~~ |
| 45    | 03 nov   | **Algorithms and algorithmic Self** <br><br> *Guest*: Rasmus Raspel <br><br><span style="color:red">online session</span>|<span style="color:maroon">Submit BB4</span> <br>  <br><br> ☛ Cheney-Lippold, J. (2017). We Are Data: Algorithms and The Making of Our Digital Selves. New York: NYU Press. [Intro --- 36 pages] <br>☛ Gillespie, T. (2014). The relevance of algorithms. In T. Gillespie, P. J. Boczkowski, & K. A. Foot (Eds.), Media technologies: Essays on communication, materiality, and society. Cambridge: MIT Press. [26 pages] |
| 46    | 10 nov   | [**Situated identities:**](https://blackboard.au.dk/bbcswebdav/users/au615724/Pablo%27s%20Class%20%E2%80%93%20WhatsApp%2C%20Coding%2C%20and%20Mapping.pdf) Global South, Social Media Identities and Cultures Writing ethnography <br><br> *Guest*: [Gabriel Pereira](https://www.gabrielpereira.net/) <br><br><br>[CODING mini-guide](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/B1SY-KCuD)| ☛ Pereira, G., Bojczuk, I., & Parks, L. (2020) [WhatsApp Disruptions in Brazil: A content analysis of user and news media responses, 2015-2018](https://mediarxiv.org/k2hjv/). Global Media and Communication. <br>☛ Clarke, A. E. (2003). Situational analyses: Grounded theory mapping after the postmodern turn. Symbolic interaction, 26(4), 553-576. [24 pages] <br>☛ Saldana, J. (2015). The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. SAGE Publications Ltd. (CHAPTER 1)<br>|
| 47    | 17 nov   | [**The other:**](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kn_Hr1yYMWcWlTUSnQMr52JuvpENtrAPU0lQ34CrwjQ/edit?usp=sharing) theories of Identity and Categorization Race, Gender, and Sexuality  <br><br> *Guest*: Maximilian Schlüter <br><br> [Vivid writing examples](https://blackboard.au.dk/webapps/cmsmain/webui/users/au615724/DISM20/vivid%20compelling%20writing%20examples?action=frameset&subaction=view&uniq=94lomg&mask=%2Fusers%2Fau615724%2FDISM20) |  <span style="color:green">Start BB5</span> <br><br> ☛ Lawler, S. (2013). The Hidden Privileges of Identity: On Being Middle Class. In Identity: Sociological Perspectives (2 ed.). Cambridge: Polity. [22 pages] <br>☛ Gray, K. L. (2012). Intersecting Oppressions and Online Communities: Examining the experiences of women of color in Xbox Live. Information, Communication & Society, 15(3), 411-428. [17 pages]  <br>☛ Tuters, M. & Hagen, S. (2018). [Who are (((they)))?: On Online Hate, Tasteless Transgression, and Memetic Versatility.](https://oilab.eu/who-are-they-on-online-hate-tasteless-transgression-and-memetic-versatility/) [17 min read] <br><br>☛ (OPTIONAL) Albury, K., & Byron, P. (2016). Safe on My Phone? Same-Sex Attracted Young People’s Negotiations of Intimacy, Visibility, and Risk on Digital Hook-Up Apps. Social Media + Society, 2(4). [8 pages] |
| 48    | 24 nov   | [**Ethical Research, and Social Media Ethics**](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/ByttbTF9w)    | ☛ Markham, A. N. (2015). Produsing ethics [for the digital near-future]. In R. A. Lind (Ed.), Produsing theory in a digital world 2.0 (pp. 247-256). NY: Peter Lang. [17 pages] <br>☛ Markham, A. N. (2018). Afterword: Ethics as Impact—Moving From Error-Avoidance and Concept-Driven Models to a Future-Oriented Approach. Social Media + Society, 4(3). [11 pages] |
| 49    | 01 dec   | [**Wrap up session**](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/rkE-e8Miw)                                          | <span style="color:maroon">Submit BB5</span>            | TBD 
| 01 | 04 jan  |Exam submission | *subject to change

## 📚 BIBLIOGRAPHY
### Extended bibliography here: https://hackmd.io/@dism20/HJlkvl8rw

## 📃 Academic regulation

### Key excerpts from [academic regulation](https://eddiprod.au.dk/EDDI/webservices/DokOrdningService.cfc?method=visGodkendtOrdning&dokOrdningId=14930&sprog=da):
* Reflect on subjectivity and identity in digitally mediated social contexts, using ethnographic and other qualitative methods and applying relevant concepts and theories
* The role of the individual in digital culture, including theories about identity, subjectivity and various perceptions of the self, i.e. the relational, virtual, networked and algorithmic self.
* The course focuses on interaction as the fundamental precondition for identity and sociality, and emphasizes different interpretations of identity and subjectivity, as well as newly established topics and issues relating to ethics and responsibility, cultural and social conventions, interpersonal communication and power structures in digital contexts.

#### Learning Objectives:

* demonstrate knowledge of key concepts within the fields of identity, subjectivity and sociality with special focus on the ways in which these concepts are used to understand digitally mediated or digitally saturated everyday life
* demonstrate knowledge of current theories and concepts within the fields of digital culture, social media, platform studies, communication and web-based sociality
* show insight into the basic steps and techniques of qualitative research methods. 

#### Skills:
- comprehend and apply qualitative, inductive, and ethnographic methods in the study of identity practices and interactions in digitally saturated, social contexts, with particular focus on the basics of how material is collected, analyzed, interpreted, and linked to theory by qualitative researchers
- analyze and reflect on how individual’s identities are performed and negotiated in and through digital media, drawing on empirical material that involves collecting, analysing, and interpreting original material/data from fieldwork.

#### Competences:
- apply a methodical, critical and considered qualitative approach to analysing identity practices, interactions, and formation of sociality in digital contexts, with special focus on social media
- apply key concepts within the field of identity, subjectivity and sociality to one’s own actual experiences of social media
- discuss and critically reflect on relevant issues within these fields, focusing on digital identity and the practices and infrastructures of social media.

### Exam options:
Ordinary exam: Attendance is a prerequisite for taking the ordinary exam, cf. the general rules of the academic regulations. The exam consists of a portfolio containing 4-7 assignments which the students work on during the course and submit to the teacher. The number of assignments, their form (individual and/or group-based, written, product and/or oral, set and/or on a topic of the student’s choice) and scope as well as the submission deadline will be announced in writing (on Blackboard) by the teacher at the beginning of the semester. The complete portfolio must be submitted for assessment in the Digital Exams system on a specified date.



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