Skip to main content
Credits and Courses
AMST 390- Online Citizenship Pre-Course
What makes an online citizen "good" or "bad"? How should different forms of participation on digital platforms be valued? This pre-course examines a range of seemingly negative forms of engagement -- including hacktivism, trolling, and taking creative liberties with the truth -- that might also express creativity and political protest. It also explores the unintended consequences of seemingly positive forms of democratic engagement, such as voting, donating, volunteering, and organizing. A collaborative media production assignment will synthesize preliminary research, as students explore their own digital identities.
AMST 350- Online Citizenship DC Course
How should online citizens be educated to promote civic literacy? This course on online communities and digital activism examines how new media and distributed networks can help or hinder social justice. It considers how the campaigns of social movements, online organizations, hashtag activists, independent journalists, fans, and other kinds of digital citizens organize and disseminate ideas to promote political, civil, or human rights. It analyzes the rhetoric of online civility, free speech, and intellectual property as concerns for the digital public sphere. It also shows why governments might want to regulate online behavior and technology companies. Subject matter will include social justice movements (MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, etc.), hate and harassment movements (GamerGate, the Proud Boys, etc.), and movements that combine advocacy and trolling (Anonymous, TikTok Teens, etc.).