Unit 05

Unit 5:
Broadcasting via the Internet
 Unit 5: Assignment #1 (due before 11:59 pm Central on MON JUN 29):

  1. First, do all of the following
    1. Watch the YouTube video, “Charlie Bit My Finger.”
    2. Read the definition (the first two paragraphs) of the Ice Bucket Challenge on Wikipedia and watch Bill Gates Take the Ice Bucket Challenge” to understand the motivation of this highly successful, intentional use of the Internet to broadcast widely and secure crowd funding.
    3. Watch Madison, WI Channel 3000’s coverage of “Teach Me How to Bucky” to understand why the student-creators of the “Teach Me How To Bucky” video intentionally wanted to get their message out far and wide — well beyond UW-Madison.
    4. Watch Ellen DeGeneres read “Texts from Your Ex” and perhaps cringe when private text messages, which were not intended to be publicly shared, are nonetheless broadcast to the entire world.
    5. Watch at least the first minute of the 2019 YouTube video, “SCCS School Closing Announcement,” which is like the “School Is Closed” viral phenomenon Professor Gernsbacher talks about in her lecture video. (In both cases, school administrators intentionally wanted to bring world-wide attention to their schools by, as the SCCS Superintendent says, “coming up with ridiculous songs … and making absolute fools of themselves,” simply to announce a school closing.)
  2. After you’ve done all the above, watch Professor Gernsbacher’s lecture video, “Broadcasting Via the Internet” (a transcript is available here).
    1. The lecture video describes a dozen situations in which communication was broadcast broadly (“went viral”) due to the Internet.
    2. When watching the lecture video, think about whether, initially, each communication was intended to reach more than one or just a small number of people OR whether the initial communication was not intended to reach more than one or just a small number of people.
      • If the initial communication WAS initially intended to reach more than one or just a small number of people, we can consider it an intentional use of the Internet to broadcast widely.
      • In contrast, if the initial communication was NOT initially intended to reach more than one or just a few people, we can consider it an unintentional result of the Internet broadcasting interpersonal communication widely.
  3. Go to the Unit 5: Assignment #1 Discussion Board and make a new post, of at least 200 words, in which you
    1. describe one of the viral sensations Professor Gernsbacher illustrated in her lecture video (and the viral sensation you describe must be one that no other member of your section has yet described);
    2. specify whether the viral sensation was an intentional use of the Internet to broadcast to a large number of people or an unintentional result of the Internet’s ability to broadcast to a large number of people; and
    3. explain why the sensation went viral by referencing all three features that research has shown to predict what content goes viral.
  4. IMPORTANT: Begin recording your Five-Day News Diary.

Unit 5: Assignment #2 (due before 11:59 pm Central on MON JUN 29):

  1. Choose one of the following four questions and complete its associated activities:
    1. Why Are Online News Websites Turning Off Anonymous Comments on their News Stories?
      1. Read Gardiner’s The Guardian (2016) article, “The Dark Side of Guardian Comments.”
      2. Read Felder’s Atlantic (2014) article, “How Comments Shape Perceptions of Sites’ Quality — and Affect Traffic.”
      3. Read Gross’s CNN (2014) article, “Online Comments Are Being Phased Out.”
      4. Read Jenson’s NPR (2016) article, “NPR Website To Get Rid of Comments.”
      5. Read Fanlund’s Capital Times (2015) article, “With Many Better Ways to Comment, We’re Turning Off the Trolls.”
      6. Read Lichterman’s Nieman Lab (2017) article, “This Site Is ‘Taking the Edge Off Rant Mode’ by Making Readers Pass a Quiz Before Commenting.”
    2. What Is Crowdfunding and How Does It Work?
      1. Watch Victoria Westcott’s (2012) TEDx talk, “Crowdfunding 101.”
      2. Watch David Khorram’s (2012) YouTube video, “What is Crowdfunding? Crowdfunding planning? What, How, Why and When.”
      3. Watch Anna Guenther’s (2012) TEDx talk, “How Crowdfunding Is Going to Change the World.”
      4. Read Barry Adams’ (2017) Wisconsin State Journal article, “B-Side Records to Continue after Heartwarming Response,” to learn how crowdfunding helped keep open the doors of a State Street landmark store.
    3. What Is Revenge Porn (and What Laws Pertain to It)?
      1. Read Rocha’s (2013) LA Times article, “Revenge Porn Is a First Under California Law.”
      2. Read Barrett’s WiRED (2015) article, “Twitter Finally Banned Revenge Porn. Now How to Enforce It?”
      3. Read Ellis’s (2017) WiRED article, “It’s Time for Facebook to Deal with the Grimy History of Revenge Porn.”
      4. Read Leber’s (2014) New Republic article, “Is Revenge Porn Legal in Your State?” [If you’re further interested in a recent state-by-state list, you can also go to CyberCivilRights.org’s list of state-by-state laws.]
      5. Read Vielmetti’s (2015) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, “Woman’s Ex Headed for Trial Under New Wisconsin Revenge Porn Law.”
      6. Read Ellis’s (2018) WiRED article, “Meet Badass, the Grassroots Activists Hitting Revenge Porn Where It Lives.” [Note: Badass is an acronym for “Battling Against Demeaning and Abusive Selfie Sharing.”]
    4. Is Our Getting Our News Online What’s Making Our Country More Politically Polarized?
      1. Read the abstract of Gentzkow and Shapiro’s (2011) scholarly journal article, “Ideological Segregation Online and Offline.” [Note that Ideological Segregation refers to the phenomenon, both online and offline, of people segregating themselves with people of the same ideological perspective and apart from people of different ideological perspectives.]
      2. Read Harvard Kennedy’s School of Media, Politics, and Public Affair’s (2012) article, “Ideological Segregation Online and Offline,” which is a fuller summary of Gentzkow and Shapiro’s (2011) scholarly journal article than is presented in the journal article’s abstract.
      3. Read the abstract of Boxell et al.’s (2017) scholarly journal article, “Greater Internet Use Is Not Associated with Faster Growth in Political Polarization among US Demographic Groups.”
      4. Read Bromwich’s New York Times (2017) article, “Social Media Is Not Contributing Significantly to Political Polarization,” which is popular press coverage of the Boxell et al. (2017) scholarly article.
      5. Read Klein’s Vox (2017) article, “Something Is Breaking American Politics, but It’s Not Social Media,” which is another popular press coverage of the Boxell et al. (2017) scholarly article. [Here is the graph Klein mentions in his article, if you want to look at it.]
      6. Read an excerpt from De-Wit et al.’s (2019) article, in Greater Good Magazine, titled “Are Social Media Driving Political Polarization?”
  2. Go to the Unit 5: Assignment #2 Discussion Board and make a new post of at least 200 words in which you
    1. identify which of the four questions you chose to learn the answer to (e.g., Why are online news websites turning off anonymous online comments? What is crowdfunding and how does it work? What is revenge porn and what laws pertain to it? Is our getting news online what’s making our country more politically polarized?);
    2. tell us why you chose that question (e.g., do you have any personal experience with it?); and
    3. answer the question you chose by referring to all the articles you were required to read or the videos you were required to watch to answer the question you chose (be sure to refer to the articles or videos with the authors’ or speakers’ names).

Unit 5: Assignment #3 (due before 11:59 pm Central on TUES JUN 30):

  1. First, read all of the following:
    1. Ajayi’s (2017) article, “How to Keep Your College Admission Offer: Start with Digital Literacy.”
    2. O’Neil’s (2013) article, “Confronting the Myth of the ‘Digital Native’.”
    3. Ramspott’s (2014) article, “Teaching Digital Identity,” which refers to the this January, 2014, incident at the University of Illinois.”
    4. OnlineClasses.org’s graphic, “Should I Post This?”
    5. StaySafeOnline.org’s (2017) infographic, “Your Personal Information Is Like Money: Value It. Protect It.”
  2. Then, choose one of the two following sets of activities.
    1. Clean up your own or a friend’s (or relative’s) Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feed by completing the following steps:

      1. Read Nakagawa’s (2007) article, “How to Avoid Getting Fired by Facebook.”
      2. Read Well’s (2014) article, “Penn State OL Coach Herb Hand Drops Recruit over Social Media Actions.”
      3. Read the abstract of Langenfeld et al.’s (2013) scholarly article, “An Assessment of Unprofessional Behavior Among Surgical Residents on Facebook: A Warning of the Dangers of Social Media.”
      4. Read Hernandez’s (2013) article, “10% of Young Facebookers Lost Jobs Because of Posts.”
      5. Read Barrett’s (2017) article, “How to Lock Down Facebook Privacy Settings” or if you want a more complete ‘How To,’ read Stokes’s (2017) “The Complete Guide to Facebook Privacy Settings.”
      6. Then, clean up your own (or a friend or relative’s) Facebook, Twitter stream, or Instagram account.
      7. NOTE: You should not choose this activity if you do not have (or you do not know a friend or a relative who has) a Facebook, Twitter stream, or Instagram account that needs substantial cleaning in the ways discussed in the articles you read.
      8. Finally, go to the Unit 5: Assignment #3 Discussion Board and make a post of at least 200 words in which
        • describe in detail the ways that you cleaned up the Facebook, Twitter feed, or Instagram account;
        • describe what information you removed and why;
        • describe any settings you changed and why;
        • explain why you made these changes and refer, in your explanation, to at least three of the above articles about cleaning up social media.
    2. Create a LinkedIn Profile by completing the following steps:

      1. Read Tyson’s (2014) article, “LinkedIn to M.B. A. Admissions.”
      2. Read WikiHow’s (no date) article, “How to Create an Account on LinkedIn.”
      3. Read LearnVest’s (2013) article, “85 Mistakes Not To Make On LinkedIn.”
      4. Then, create a LinkedIn Profile, using the suggestions and guidelines provided by the articles you read.
      5. Finally, go to the Unit 5: Assignment #3 Discussion Board and make a post of at least 200 words in which
        • describe in detail how you followed all the articles about LinkedIn suggestions and guidelines (be sure to refer all the articles by the authors’ names), and
        • embed a link to your (new) LinkedIn profile.
        • NOTE: To embed a link (on the Discussion Board) to your LinkedIn Profile, you need to use your public LinkedIn URL (not the URL that appears to you when you are logged into LinkedIn as yourself, because that URL requires being logged in as you). For example, https://www.linkedin.com/in/morton-ann-gernsbacher-9656984 is the public URL Professor Gernsbacher would post for her LinkedIn profile, although she would embed it on the Discussion Board as “Here is my LinkedIn Profile.”
        • NOTE: You must set your LinkedIn profile to public so that this Assignment can be graded. Here is how to set your LinkedIn profile to public. After your Assignment is graded, if you want to set your LinkedIn Profile to private, you may. But if you choose the LinkedIn option for completing this assignment, you’ll need to set your LinkedIn Profile to public so that we can grade your work.
        • NOTE: You should not choose this option if you already have a LinkedIn profile, unless your existing profile needs quite a bit of work. (And if so, please detail in your post the additional work you did on your existing LinkedIn Profile.)

Unit 5: Assignment #4 (due before 11:59 pm Central on FRI JUL 3):

  1. Read all of the following:
    1. Michael Barthel’s (2016) Pew Research summary, “Around Half of Newspaper Readers Rely Only on Print Edition.” Note, in particular, the effects of age and education on whether people are more likely to get their news offline (in print newspapers and from local TV news shows) versus online. Are older people more likely to get their news offline (print newspapers and local TV news shows) or online? Are less educated people more likely to get their news offline (print newspapers and local TV news shows) or online?
    2. Amy Mitchell and colleagues’ (2015) Pew Research summary, “Millennials and Political News.” Again, note the effects of age on whether people are more likely to get their political news online or offline.
    3. Amy Mitchell and colleagues’ (2017) Pew Research summary, “How Americans Encounter, Recall and Act upon Digital News.” Note the effects of age and gender on where people are more likely to get their news.
    4. Elisa Shearer and Jeffrey Gottfried’s (2017) Pew Research summary, “News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017.” Note the effects of age and gender on which social media platforms people are more likely to use to get their news.
    5. Read Jeffrey Gottfried’s (2017) Pew Research summary “Americans’ online news use is closing in on TV news use.” Note the effects of age on whether people are more likely to get their news online or from TV.
  2. Complete your Five-Day News Diary.
    1. Name your completed Five-Day News Diary YourLastname_PSY-532_NewsDiary.pdf.
    2. Remember that your completed Five-Day News Diary needs to be a one-page PDF.
    3. Remember that your completed Five-Day News Diary must include both a table AND a pie-chart.
  3. Go to the Unit 5: Assignment #4 Discussion Board and do the following:
    1. Make a post, of at least 200 words, in which you
      • summarize the source of the majority of the news you learned during this five-day period. Was it offline or online?;
      • describe how your balance of offline vs online sources compares with the Pew Research summaries you read; and
      • describe whether you fit the profile described in the Pew Research summaries for your age, education level, and gender.
      • If you got any of your news (as noted on your Five-Day News Diary) from social media, discuss whether you fit the profile (for your age, gender, and education level) discussed in the Pew Research summaries for getting news from social media.
    2. Attach, as a PDF, your one-page Five-Day News Diary, named YourLastname_PSY-532_NewsDiary.pdf.
      • To attach your PDF, click on the word “Attach” that is directly underneath the text box of the Discussion Board (and that is accompanied by a paperclip icon).

Unit 5: Assignment #5 (due before 11:59 pm Central on WED JUL 1):

  1. Meet online with your small Chat Group for a one-hour text-based Group Chat at a time/date that your Chat Group previously arranged.
  2. Prior to your one-hour Group Chat, all members of your Chat Group must do the following:
    1. To appreciate why it’s important for any 21st century citizen to become more digitally literate, read Silverman and Singer-Vine’s (2016) article, “Most Americans Who See Fake News Believe It, New Survey Says.”
    2. To see how digitally literate other college students are, read Croft and Moore’s (2017) article, “Checking What Students Know about Checking the News.”
    3. Next, read Wineburg’s (2016) overview of the Stanford Digital Literacy Study.
    4. Test yourself on both the first set of example items and the second set of example items from the Stanford Digital Literacy study. Make sure you read through all the examples of students’ correct and incorrect answers (and why their answers were correct versus incorrect).
    5. Then, read the following documents, each of which explains several steps for improving digital literacy:
  3. During your one-hour Group Chat, begin by telling the other Chat Group members about your Term Project.
    1. Which option have you chosen (Whole Course or Deep Dive)?
    2. Which presentation medium have you chosen?
    3. What progress have you made?
  4. Then, spend the rest of your one-hour Group Chat working as a group to identify
    1. three reasons why college students need to be more digitally literate (based on the articles you read in b.1. and b. 2. above); and
    2. a list of 20 steps college students can take to improve their digital literacy (based on the documents you read in b.3. through b.5. above).
    3. Note: Although it might feel as though these documents re-mention some of the same steps, overlap and repetition are always helpful for learning, and each document explains some steps that the other documents don’t.
  5. At the end of your one-hour Group Chat,
    1. Nominate one member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Chat) to make a post on the Unit 5: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that summarizes your Group Chat in at least 200 words.
    2.  Nominate another member of your Chat Group (who participated in the Group Chat using the browser Chrome on their laptop, rather than on their mobile device) to save the Chat transcript, as described in the Course How To (under the topic, “How To Save and Attach a Chat Transcript”), and attach the Chat transcript, in PDF, to a post on the Unit 5: Assignment #5 Discussion Board.
    3. Nominate a third member of your Chat Group (who also participated in the Chat) to make another post on the Unit 5: Assignment #5 Discussion Board that states the name of your Chat Group, the names of the Chat Group members who participated the Chat, the date of your Chat, and the start and stop time of your Group Chat.
    4. If only two persons participated in the Chat, then one of those two persons needs to do two of the above three tasks.
    5. Before ending the Chat, arrange the date and time of the Group Chat you will need to hold during the next Unit (Unit 6: Assignment #5).

Unit 5: Assignment #6 (due before 11:59 pm Central on WED JUL 1):

  1. Complete the Unit 5 Review Sheet (which is a fillable PDF; refer to previous Units’ instructions for how to download, save, and fill in a fillable PDF).
    1. Rename the unfilled PDF to be YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit05_CourseReview.pdf; then fill it in.
    2. Remember that each Review Sheet in this course will be cumulative, so be sure to fill in ALL pages.
  2. Continue to work on your Term Project.
    1. If you’ve chosen the Whole Course option, continue journaling or overviewing the previous Units (i.e., Units 1, 2, 3, and 4), with the goal of getting up to the current Unit.
    2. If you’ve chosen the Deep Dive option, continue your research.
    3. Compose at least 200 words describing which project you’ve chosen, which presentation media you’ve chosen, and what work you’ve done on your Term Project during this Unit. Remember that you should be allocating about two hours per Unit to your Term Project.
    4. Save your 200 words as a PDF that is named YourLastName_PSY-532_Unit05_TermProject.pdf.
  3. Go to Unit 5: Assignment #6 (which is an Assignment link, not a Discussion Board) and
    1. use the “File Upload” tool to attach/upload your completed Unit 5 Review Sheet (click “Choose File” to attach/upload your filled-in PDF);
    2. click on “+ Add Another File” to attach/upload your 200-word composition about your Term Project (saved in PDF); and
    3. immediately after submitting your assignment, check to make sure that your filled-in PDF is really filled-in (isn’t empty) and that your PDF about your Term Project is also attached and complete.

Congratulations, you have finished Unit 5! Onward to Unit 6!