[liberationtech] suggestions for MA course on Internet regulation?

[Griffin Boyce]

Hi Charles,

   This is different than your subject led me to believe ;-)  I'd say 
that the largest reason behind trying to restrict pornography is 
societal control -- limiting self-determination through enforced stigma 
and criminalization of consensual sex between adults.  Maggie Mayhem has 
written good things about this from a performer's perspective[1], and 
I'd also recommend the Arse Elektronika anthologies (particularly Screw 
The System).[2][3].

   Foucault would probably say that we've gone from a disciplinary 
society to a society of control, and then leapt quite suddenly into 
being a panoptic society.  So maybe reading more Foucault (or Deleuze) 
would be a good addition. [4]

   Please let me know how the search goes. =)

best,
Griffin

[1] Err... maybe I *shouldn't* look up porn blogs while in public.
[2] 
http://monochrom.at/blog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=2109&blogId=1
[3] Incidentally, Arse was the first place I ever presented -- the topic 
was fairly esoteric knowledge about penile prosthesis and fabrication.  
Science!
[4] 
https://libcom.org/library/intellectuals-power-a-conversation-between-michel-foucault-and-gilles-deleuze


On 2014-08-11 07:25, Charles Ess wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> (with apologies for duplication for those of you on the Air list)
> 
> I teach a MA course titled  "Pornography, Protection, Power" which is
> centrally focused on questions of who / what _should_/_could_ (both 
> huge
> questions, of course) attempt to regulate Internet-facilitated
> communication vis-a-vis _possible_ limits to free expression, e.g.,
> pornography, libel, "clear and present danger" tests in the U.S.
> (especially since 9/11), and so on (and, rest assured, with a thousand
> historical / cultural / political caveats).
> 
> As I've come to structure the course, I focus on the theme of 
> emancipation
> as a core norm - one that underlies primary justifications of 
> democratic
> polity and correlative norms of equality, privacy, and freedom of
> expression (among others).  The course includes:
> 
> A) a good dose of readings on pornography - as a "classical" limit on
> freedom of expression - including diverse cultural and historical
> observations, with a particular focus on the now long debate over porn 
> as
> legitimately protected either free expression and/or as emancipatory in
> its own right;
> 
> B) a good dose of readings on democratic polity, with specific 
> attention
> to the central importance of freedom of expression for both individual
> self-development and democratic debate and processes more broadly;
> a particular focus here is on the rights of children in all of this, as
> brilliantly exposited by my colleague Elisabeth Staksrud in her 
> _Children
> in the Online World: Risk, Regulation, Rights_ (2013);
> 
> C) a very strong dose of readings (primarily from Mansell and Raboy, 
> The
> Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy) on the history of
> efforts (initially in "Western" countries) to regulate communication
> media, beginning with print - and highlighting the contrasts between 
> such
> efforts as new media technologies emerge, beginning with the telegraph 
> and
> telephone / broadcast media / and then the rise of the Internet as
> challenging / blurring earlier definitions and regimes;
> 
> D) a large theme here is the broad shift, starting ca. 1970s away from
> national-state centered support and control of broadcast media 
> (especially
> in the European and Scandinavian contexts with their strong traditions 
> of
> public service broadcasting) towards neo-liberal de/re-regulation of 
> media
> - leading to an ever increasing ownership and control of media by 
> private
> companies and multinational corporations, with Google, Apple, Facebook,
> and others as the primary / usual suspects;
> 
> E) some readings on copyright, copying, and creativity (where efforts 
> to
> define and protect patents and copyright inspire [largely futile] 
> efforts
> to regulate / control file-sharing, etc.); and
> 
> F) a small unit on "liberation technology," as reflected in 
> contemporary
> work on circumventing state censorship of the Internet in any number of
> countries (using Walid Al-Saqaf's _alkasir_ software as a primary 
> example
> from the Arabic-speaking world; I'm pleased to say that Walid will 
> provide
> a guest lecture in the course as well).
> 
> WHAT I'M ASKING HELP WITH ...
> 1) any additional readings that you might suggest, as either primary or
> optional?
> For example, in the direction of policy readings, I've been working
> through Sandra Braman's _Change of State: Information, Policy, and 
> Power_
> (MIT: 2012), which is just terrific, especially for articulating the 
> U.S.
> side of things, and will add some selections to supplant the current
> readings as more E.U./Scandinavian-oriented.  But I'm sure more good
> material is "out there" to be considered
> 
> 2) suggestions for case-studies, especially suited for in-class debate?
> For example, I am thinking of beginning with Facebook - both the recent
> study on 600,000+ users, coupled with the upcoming class-action lawsuit
> spearheaded by the Austrian law student Max Schrems.  The idea is to 
> call
> attention to a current, real-world conflict between (perceived) users'
> rights (as articulated and, ideally, defended by liberal-democratic
> regimes) and corporately-owned Internet-based communication venues.  So
> specific resources here would be helpful -
> As would suggestions for other case-studies that would be suited
> especially for in-class analysis, discussion, and debate.
> Edward Snowden's case is an obvious candidate, along with Wiki-leaks -
> again, useful resources would be appreciated -
> But I'm sure there are other, more country-specific cases that would be
> very pertinent and lively for the students.
> 
> With a thousand thanks in advance for reading this far and for any
> suggestions you may have to offer -
> 
> - charles ess
> Professor in Media Studies
> Department of Media and Communication
> Director, Centre for Research on Media Innovations
> <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/research/center/media-innovations/>
> Editor, The Journal of Media Innovations
> <https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/>
> 
> My latest book, Digital Media Ethics, is now available from Polity:
> http://www.politybooks.com/book.asp?ref=0745656056
> 
> University of Oslo
> P.O. Box 1093 Blindern
> NO-0317
> Oslo Norway
> email: charles.ess at media.uio.no