The first essay relates to the early weeks of the course about the internet and its influence on the relationship between global and local cultures, and the dialectics of empowerment/disempowerment, utopianism/dystopianism that surround this relationship. Guided by the below essay questions, you should focus your essay around a particular element of cyber-culture discourse explored in the early weeks of the course, and/or a particular case study which illuminates the nexus between the internet, globalization, and local cultures. Essay questions will be discussed in tutorials, and you are encouraged to approach your tutor or coordinator for guidance as you choose your essay question and narrow down your argument.
Your essay must be structured around a precise, carefully considered argument developed in response to your chosen question. Don?t simply unload everything you happen to know about the topic! Ensure that your essay does not draw on broad generalizations, anecdotal evidence, or ?common sense? assumptions about the internet and its influence on contemporary culture. Aim instead to clearly position your specific argument within the relevant scholarly discourse. In addition to being well-supported by research, theoretical concepts, and/or
consideration of a relevant case study (depending on your chosen question and approach), your essay should engage with relevant scholarly debates about the liberating or oppressive potentials of the internet ? think of your essay as your original contribution to such debates.

References-
Unless it is to do with a case study for which you require an online resource, use all academic references, whether it be journals or books. Use established texts as well as contemporary in order to build a well-rounded argument.

Readings-
Here are some of the readings provided in the course to help get you started. Use at least two external sources beyond the set readings.

Set Readings:

Reed, TV. 2014. ?How do we make sense of digitizing cultures? Some ways of thinking through the culture-technology matrix.? In Digitized Lives: Culture, Power and Social Change in the Internet Era. New York: Routledge. 1-30. REED.pdf

Buckup, S. 2014. ?Utopia or dystopia? Five Key Tech Debates.? In World Economic Forum. 10 September, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2014/09/utopia-dystopia-five-key-tech-debates/ Five key tech debates.pdf

Marwick, A. 2013. ?A Cultural History of Web 2.0.? In Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity and Branding in the Social Media Age. New Haven: Yale University Press. 21-72. Marwick.pdf

Morozov, E. 2010. ?The Digital Dictatorship: The Myth of the Techno-Utopia.? The Wall Street Journal. February 20,

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703983004575073911147404540 The Myth of the Techno-Utopia – WSJ.pdf
S. L. Morrison, and R. Gomez. 2014. ?Pushback: Expressions of resistance to the ?evertime? of constant online connectivity.? First Monday, 19(8). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4902

Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Centre for Social Impact, Telstra Corporation Ltd. 2015. Australian Digital Inclusion Index: Discussion Paper. Melbourne. DOI: 10.4225/50/55FF518E1CF42. Telstra Discussion Paper.pdf

Further Reading:

Crary, J. 2014. 24/7. London: Verso.

Goldberg, G. 2016. “Anti-social Media: Digital dystopianism as normative project.” New Media and Society 18(5). 784-799. New Media Society-2016-Goldberg-784-99.pdf

Hall, A. 2009. “A Way of Revealing: Technology and Utopianism in Contemporary Culture.” Journal of Technology Studies 35(1). 58-66. Hall technology utopia.pdf

Hassan, R. 2012. ?The Chronic Distraction of Everyday Life.? In The Age of Distraction: Reading, Writing and Politics in a High-Speed Networked Economy. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. 107-138. HasssanDistraction.pdf

Hassan, R. 2003. ?Network Time and the New Knowledge Epoch.? Time & Society, 12 (2-3). 225-241. 67647_00004036_01_Hassan006.pdf

Wacjman, J. 2014 ?High Speed Society.? In Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 13-36. Wajcman.pdf

Ang, I and Pothen, N. 2009. ?FCJ?094 Between Promise and Practice: Web 2.0, Intercultural Dialogue and Digital Scholarship.? The Fibreculture Journal 14. FCJ-094 Between Promise and Practice_ Web 2.pdf

Hands, J. 2011. ?@ is for Alter-Globalisation.? In Dissent, Resistance and Rebellion in a Digital Culture. London: Pluto Press. 142-161. @ is for Alterglobalisation.pdf

Kellner, D. 2001. ?Globalisation, Technopolitics and Revolution.? Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory 98. globalisation technolpolitics kellner.pdf

Gittinger, J. 2014. ?Is there such a thing as ?cyberimperialism?? Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 28(4). 509-519. Is there such a thing as cyberimperialism.pdf
Helsper, E. J. (2012). A corresponding fields model for the links between social and digital exclusion. Communication Theory, 22(4), pp. 403-426.

Rennie, E., Hogan, E., Gregory, R., Crouch., A, Wright, A & Thomas, J. (2016). Internet at the Outstation: The digital divide and remote indigenous communities. Theory on Demand. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. Accessible online https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/no-19-internet-on-the-outstation-the-digital-divide-and-remote-aboriginal-communities/

Wyatt, S (2003) Non-users also matter: The construction of users and non-users of the Internet? in N Oudshoorn and T Pinch (eds) How Users Matter: The Co-construction of Users and Technology, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (pp.67-79) Accessible online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254769192_Non-users_also_matter_The_construction_of_users_and_non-users_of_the_Internet)