COMM 6700 - [Data and Algorithms in Public Life]

(crosslisted) INFO 6700
(CA)

Fall. 3 credits.

Prerequisite: COMM 2450/INFO 2450 or COMM 3200/INFO 3200. Enrollment limited to: juniors, seniors or graduate students. Co-meets with COMM 4700/INFO 4700.

Staff.

Large-scale data and the algorithms that we use to navigate them are the newest communication technologies, and have become critically important in structuring how we communicate, how we understand, how we buy, how we predict, and how we participate in public life. This course will examine the contemporary role of data, algorithms, and information institutions. Our starting point will be that “big data” may be merely the latest phase in some century-long changes, that the questions that must be asked about how public life is being reshaped by data and algorithms are much older. We will examine contemporary debates around big data, social media, and algorithmic culture, informed by this long view understanding. For the graduate student course, each week we will expand on the questions being grappled with in the undergraduate course, by exploring them with a set of theoretical tools, traditions, and debates.

Outcome 1: The contemporary debates around data and its place in public functions such as politics, journalism, entertainment, and science are marked by an array of claims and justifications that require critical unpacking. This includes claims made in the scholarly research about these shifts and their import. Students will weigh competing arguments about these changes, and draw their own conclusions; in writing assignments they will explore examples of their own and bring these analytical perspectives to bear.

Outcome 2: Writing assignments will require research of their own, as students will gather primary and secondary materials about contemporary and past debates, and determine how to best assemble a cogent and thoughtful argument. The final assignment will include writing an op-ed style statement about a specific case, which means particular thought about the ethics and tactics involved in addressing a public audience, in ways that can have real world consequences.