New York University
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication
MCC -GE 2308 The Racial Web
Course Description
Internet apologists once heralded the world wide web as a space that would liberate the voice of
the racial other, democratize news media flows, expand public discourse about race, and buttress
political participation among people of color. As internet technology and its users who-create
co
cyberspace have matured over the past decade, what do we make of the web’s promises? Has the
web expanded the spaces for racial discourse? Has it transformed aditionally
tr
racial others into
opinion elites who can influence racial discourse beyond that of the traditional news media elites?
Has this discourse and those who produce it generated one or more viable counter
-publics able to
influence the racial agendaand how we frame racial issues? Does the web afford racial minorities
greater social and economic mobility? And has this led to any tangible form of political activism
that has produced results furthering the cause of civil rights?Can we locate sites of racial
disadvantage, exclusion, segregation and disparate treatment in online environments?
These are the questions addressed in this
course as we examine the sources,content, and flow of
racial discourse on theweb, as well as a broader variety of issuesrelated to race and digital
technology. Central themes of racial formation and critical race theory, coupled with foundational
concepts from graph theory and social network analysis guide our exploration into the
multifaceted ways in which race gets produ
ced and reproduced in cyberspace.
Learner Objectives:
1. Students will be able to articulate the relationship between digital race discourse and
tangible outcomes related to racial identity, racial politics, and racial inequality.
2. Students will be able toidentify prominent sources of digital race discourse and
demonstrate how such discourse flows and circulates within one or more networks
and
online spaces.
3. Students will be able to identify online correlates of “ofline” racial identities, social
structures, dynamics and politics.
4. Students will be able to articulate a working understanding of normative democratic
theory, critical race theory, social network theory, and public sphere theory and their
relationship to each other.
5. Students will be able tocollect, analyze, interpret and present core data used in social
network analyses.
Required Texts :
Books
Michael Omi and Howard Winant. (1986/1994). Racial Formation in the United States. New
York: Routledge.
1 Lisa Nakamura (2002). Cybertypes: Race,Ethnicity, & Identity on the Internet.
Alan McKee (2005). The Public Sphere: An Introduction. Cambridge.
Lisa Nakamura& Peter Chow White Eds.,
(
2011). Race After the Internet. Routledge.
Articles/Book Excerpts
Xavier de Souza Briggs (Ed.) (2005).
The Geography of Opportunity: Race & Housing Choice in
Metropolitan America. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
( Chapters2-3).
George Lipsitz (2007). The racialization of space and the spacialization of race. Landscape
Journal,26, 1-14.
Brooke Neely & Michelle Samura (2011). Social geographies of race: Connecting race and
space. Ethnic & Racial Studies,34, 11, 1933-1952.
Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith
-Lovin, and James M. Cook (2001). Birds of a Feather:
Homophily in Social Networks . Annual Review of Sociology, 27. 415 -44.
Ricardo D. Stanton
-Salazar and Sanford M. Dornbusch. (1995). Social Capital and the
Reproduction of Inequality: Information Networks among Mexican
-Origin High School
Students.Sociology of Education, Vol. 68, No. 2. 116-135.
Calvo-Armengol, Antoni and Jackson, Matthew O. (2004). The effects of social networks on
employment and inequality.The American Economic Review
, 94, 3. 426-454.
DiMaggio, P. and Hargitai, E., Celeste, C., and Shafer, S. (1994). Digital inequali
ty: From
unequal access to differential use. In K. Neckerman (Ed.), Social Inequality . New York:
Russell Sage. 355-400.
Granoveter, Mark. (1995). (1983). The strength of Weak ties: A network theory revisited.
Sociological Theory,1. 201-233.
Hargittai, Eszter. (2002). Second-level digital divide: Differences in people’s online skills. First
Monday, 7, 4.
Hargittai, Eszter and Hinnant, Amanda (2008). Digital inequality: Differences in young adults’
use of the internet. Communication Research
, 35, 5. 602-621.
McDonald, Steve, Lin, Nan, and Ao, Dan. (2009). Networks of opportunity: Gender, race and job
leads. Social Problems, 56, 3. 385-402.
Dhavan Shah, Michael Schmierbach, Joshua Hawkins, Rodolfo Espino, and Janet Donovan
(2002). Nonrecursive Models of Internet Use and Community Engagement: Questioning
Whether Time Spent Online Erodes Social Capital.
Journalism & Mass Communication
Quarterly, 79, 4, 964-987.
Nicole B. Ellison, Charles Steinfield, and Cliff Lampe. (2007). The Benefits of Faceb ook
‘Friends’: Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
, 12, 1143-1168.
2 Barry Wellman, Anabel Quan Haase, James Witte, and Keith Hampton. (2001). Does the Internet
Increase, Decrease, or Supplement Social Capital?American Behavioral Scientist,45, 3,
436-455.
Sebastian Valenzuela, Namsu Park, and Kerk F. Kee. (2009). Is There Social Capital in a Social
Network Site: Facebook Use and College Students’ Life Satisfaction, Trust &
Participation.Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication,14, 875-901.
Nan Lin. (1999). Building a Network Theory of Social Capital.Connections,22, 1 28-51.
Assignments & Learning Activities
Cybertyping Project & Presentation
Students will identify a prominent example of cybertyping in a specific online environment. This
may include sites in which specific forms of racial stereotyping, identity tourism, or racial
exclusion or disparate treatment is demons
trated. Students will submit a-64 double-spaced page
paper detailing and analyzing their example, and will be responsible for doing a -minute,
five
inclass presentation based on their chosen example.
Digital Segregations Project & Presentation
Students will identify a significant example of racial segregation as it exists in an online context.
This may be accomplished by observing/demonstrating racial segregationininone’s own, or
generally within a particular social network or space. Students
will submit a 4-6 double-spaced
page paper detailing and analyzing the nature of the segregation as well as specifying the
potential implications and outcomes of such segregation. Students will also be responsible for
doing a five -minute, in-class presentation based on their chosen example.
Social Networks/Social Capital Project & Presentation
Students will identify five prominent internet sites (of differing types, i.e., news, blog, social
network site, etc.). For each site, students willsubmit a 4-6 double-spaced page paperidentify ing
and describingthe various forms of social capital that can/may be derived from usage of the site.
Students will be expected to argue their criteria of social capital and connect each aspect of social
capital they identify with said criteria.Students will also be responsible for doing a five-minute,
in-class presentation based on their chosen examples.
Final Exam
Students will complete a final exam covering potentially all lecture, reading, and discussion
material covered throughout the course.
Final Paper
Students will submit a thesis
-driven paperdefending a position about a contemporary issue
related to race, the internet and/or digital media. Students are free to choose their desired topic,
though each will be approv
ed by the professor. The papers will graded based on the quality of the
students’ argument(s), the relevance/connection to issues of race and digital media, and the
facility with which race and digital media concepts, ideas and data are used. The final er
pap
will
be 1,000-1,250 words in length.
Assessment Criteria & Evaluation
All assignmentswill be graded on a categorical basis of sufficient (S) or insufficient (I). Final
grades will be determined by the proportion of (S) grades students receive on each of their
3 Week Topic
1
Foundations: Racial Formation Theory
Reading Due
Omi & Winant
2
Foundations: Public Sphere Theory
and
Principles of Social Networks
3
Theorizing the Racial Web: The Digital Race
Connection
4
Theorizing The Racial Web: Cybertypes &
Racial Identity
5
Cybertyping Student Project Reports
6
Digital Segregations I: Principle of Offline
Segregation
Briggs; Lipsitz; Neely; McPherson
7
Digital Segregations II: The New Digital
Divide
Hargittai (all); DiMaggio,
Nakamura & White: 9, 10
8
Digital Segregations Students Project Reports
9
Social Networks & Social Capital I: What
Are They?
10
Social Networks & Social Capital I:
Socialization, Jobs & Facebook
11
Social Networks & Social Capital I: What
Are They? Student Project Reports
12
Social Networks, Discourse & Influence:
Black Twitter & Race Blogs
Nakamura & White: 11, TBD
13
Digital Diaspora and the Performance of
Digital Ancestry
Nakamura & White: 12, TBD
14
Webs of Discrimination in Digital Data
Nakamura & White:, 6, 13, 14
15
Course Review & Final Exam Preparation
16
Final Exam
McKee
Nakamura & White: 1, 2, 5
Nakamura
Shah et al.; Wellman et al.; and Lin
Ellison et al.; Valenzuela et al.; StantonSalazar et. al; McDonald et al.
5 Patton, D. U., Eschmann, R. D., & Butler, D. A. (2013). Internet banging: New trends in social media, gang
violence, masculinity and hip hop. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, A54-59.
Assignments Due
Essay #2 Due: Examples of Racialized Spaces
Assigned
Response Essay #3 – Implications of Web search: Conduct a multi-level query for one or more race related
terms using GoogleTrends, and include in your essay the terms you chose and why. If you have a Google
account, track your browsing history over at least a 3-day period. Summarizing the findings from each, describe
and discuss the potential significance that web searching (considering users, search platform, generated general
search results, personalized results, etc) may have on issues of racial significance.
Week 5 [Feb. 27]– THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF WEB BROWSING & SEARCH
Description
We continue our discussion of conceptualizing, identifying and distinguishing racial spaces by looking at web
searching and browsing behavior within the context of race and other demographic variables. “Where” do
search results of racialized content “take” us? What forms of information about racial groups and race-related
topics are delivered, what are their sources, and what audiences are most concerned with, and impacted by
them? What can we learn about the people and locations from which users search for or arrive at racialized sites
on the web? In what ways might online search impact geographical movement(s), perception of geographical
spaces/places, etc.? Are specifically racial politics embedded in search engines design, site rankings and
information retrieval and if so, what implications might this have for Web users?
Readings Due
Purcell, K., Brenner, J., & Rainie, L. (2012). Search engine use 2012. Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Ingmar Weber and Carlos Castillo. (2010). The demographics of web search. SIGIR’10, July 19–23, 2010,
Geneva, Switzerland. ACM 978-1-60558-896-4/10/07.
Ingmar Weber and Alejandro Jaimes. 2011. Who uses web search for what: and how. In Proceedings of the
fourth ACM international conference on Web search and data mining (WSDM '11). ACM, New York, NY,
USA, 15-24. DOI=10.1145/1935826.1935839 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1935826.1935839
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz (2013). The cost of racial animus on a black presidential candidate: Using Google
search data to find what surveys miss. Working Paper.
Osei Appiah (2004). Effects of ethnic identification on web browsers’ attitudes toward and navigational patterns
on race-targets sites. Communication Research, 31(3), 312-337.
Granka, L. A. (2010). The politics of search: A decade retrospective. The Information Society, 26(5), 364-374.
Assignments Due
Essay #3 – Implication of Web Search
7 WEEK 6 [MAR. 6] – Siting Race on the Web: Hyper-Link Networks & Race-Based Associations
Description
This class brings together elements from previous classes to address a final aspect of identifying and
understanding the construction of racialized space on the Web. By focusing on the networks of racialized sites
on the Web, we hope to understand in a more integrated way how elements of search, design, racial cuing,
flocking behavior, etc. work together to produce networks of racialized sites navigable by individuals with
particular race-based needs and interests. We utilize hyperlink analysis to identify, describe and map clusters of
racial sites as a precursor to focusing more in the coming weeks on how to conceptualize ideas of racial bias,
discrimination and inequality within Web domains.
Readings Due
Robert Ackland. (2013). Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools For Social Scientists in the Digital Age.
Los Angeles: Sage. Chapters 3-4.
De Maeyer, J. (2012). Towards a hyperlinked society: A critical review of link studies. New Media and Society,
15, 737-751.
Tateo, L. (2005). The Italian Extreme Right Online Network: An Exploratory Study Using an Integrated Social
Network Analysis and Content Analysis Approach. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 10(2),
00-00.
Narayan, A., Purkayastha, B., & Banerjee, S. (2011). Constructing Transnational and Virtual Ethnic Identities:
A Study of the Discourse and Networks of Ethnic Student Organisations in the USA and UK. Journal of
Intercultural Studies, 32(5), 515-537.
Charlton McIlwain. (2014). Racial Discourse Networks: Race Blogs, Media Influence & the Possibilities for
Collective Action. Working Paper.
WEEK 7 [MAR. 27] – Conceptualizing Online Discrimination: Legal Theory, Systems Bias & the Racial
Web
Description
During this class we transition away from conceptualizing, identifying and mapping racial and racialized sites
online to providing a framework for inquiring into racial inequality in various online contexts. We begin by
considering how racial discrimination is operationalized in legal contexts and consider theories of bias in
computation systems. Then we consider the few available examples of racial bias potentially at work in online
systems.
Readings Covered
Morning, A., & Sabbagh, D. (2005). From sword to plowshare: using race for discrimination and
antidiscrimination in the United States. International Social Science Journal, 57(183), 57-73.
Primus, R. A. (2003). Equal protection and disparate impact: Round three. Harvard Law Review, 493-587.
Friedman, B., & Nissenbaum, H. (1996). Bias in computer systems. ACM Transactions on Information Systems
(TOIS), 14(3), 330-347.
8 Introna, L. D., & Nissenbaum, H. (2000). Shaping the Web: Why the politics of search engines matters. The
information society, 16(3), 169-185.
West, R. J., & Thakore, B. K. (2013). Racial Exclusion in the Online World.Future Internet, 5(2), 251-267.
Sweeney, L. (2013). Discrimination in online ad delivery. Queue, 11(3), 10.
Tara McPherson (2011). U.S. operating systems at mid-century: The Intertwining of Race and Unix. In Lisa
Nakamura and Peter A. Chow-White (Eds.). Race After the Internet. pp. 21-37. New York: Routledge.
Alex Galloway (2011). Does the whatever speak? In Lisa Nakamura and Peter A. Chow-White (Eds.). Race
After the Internet. pp. 111-127. New York: Routledge.
WEEK 8 [APR. 3] – DESIGNING RESEARCH ON THE RACIAL WEB: REVIEWING THE LITERATURE
Description
This week we begin the research portion of our course by reviewing, assessing and critiquing research from
among the various literatures dealing with the intersection of race and the Internet. The objective of the class is
to gain a broader understanding of the extant research in this area for the purpose of formulating new questions
and research designs we may use to address questions about the relationship between race and the Web. In
keeping with our space/place interests, we will focus on literature that can connect race to both “offline” and
“online” phenomena.
Readings Covered
Robert Ackland. (2013). Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools For Social Scientists in the Digital Age.
Los Angeles: Sage.
Assignments Due
Annotated Bibliography Presentation
Assigned
Final Research Project Topics: Briefly identify and describe the domain/topic/phenomena you may be interested
in pursuing for your final research project. You should treat this as a brainstorming exercise, focusing on broad
topic areas you may want to consider. You should develop at least 2 potential topics for consideration.
WEEK 9 [APR. 10] – DESIGNING RESEARCH ON THE RACIAL WEB: E-RESEARCH METHODS & TOOLS
Description
We continue our focus on designing research on the racial Web by surveying specific methodological
approaches and tools used to formulate and address specific research questions. We focus specifically on
mapping tools, including the mapping of networks of websites, and the mapping of Web data onto geographical
spaces.
Readings Covered
9 Robert Ackland. (2013). Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools For Social Scientists in the Digital Age.
Los Angeles: Sage.
Assignment Due
Final Research Project Topics
Assigned
Final Research Project Questions/Methods: Be prepared to discuss your final research paper questions and
methodological design (For Weeks 11/12).
WEEK 10 [APR. 17] – DESIGNING RESEARCH ON THE RACIAL WEB: E-RESEARCH METHODS & TOOLS
Description
In this class we consider some basic forms of quantitative data analysis, disparity analysis, textual/content
analysis & survey analysis as potential tools for addressing questions about the racial Web.
Readings Covered
Robert Ackland. (2013). Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools For Social Scientists in the Digital Age.
Los Angeles: Sage.
WEEK 11 [APR. 24] – DESIGNING RESEARCH ON THE RACIAL WEB: E-RESEARCH METHODS & TOOLS
Description
Given our review of relevant literature, and survey of topics/methods/tools, we focus on formulating specific
research questions and matching those questions with specific methodological designs. Students will present
their initial research topic/questions/design with the class as a basis for discussion.
Assignments Due
Final Research Project Presentations.
WEEK 12 [MAY 1] – DESIGNING RESEARCH ON THE RACIAL WEB: E-RESEARCH METHODS & TOOLS
Description
Given our review of relevant literature, and survey of topics/methods/tools, we focus on formulating specific
research questions and matching those questions with specific methodological designs. Students will present
their initial research topic/questions/design with the class as a basis for discussion.
Assignments Due
Final Research Project Presentations.
WEEK 13 [MAY 8] – TBD
10 May 20th – FINAL RESEARCH PAPERS DUE.
11