A few students asked for me to post readings, readings beyond the ones we do for class somewhere convenient–I’ll try to do that here. These are mostly current articles that speak to the academic and theoretical readings we’re doing for class. Sometimes we’ll read them together in class and discuss.
Starting off, here’s an article about Ted Cruz (no, not THAT story!) and his attempts to retain control of ICANN in the US. ICANN stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN manages domain names on the Internet and starting October 1, control of this is suppose to be turned over to the international community.
Two ex-Google employees are trying to break into the bodega business, and people are upset to say the least. We will definitely talk about this article as I think provides a good example of how the jobs created by digital media are not always great for communities, individuals, or the economy in general. What do you think? What would it be like in NYC without neighborhood bodegas? Do you have a regular bodega?
Here’s a great podcast on the problem with algorithms and the inequalities they reproduce and aggravate. Take a listen, especially if you’re fuzzy on what the heck an algorithm is! (no shame in that!)
New York Times has been investigating the ways Russia “influenced” our election using Facebook.
Another good New York Times article on economic inequality and the weakening of labor using case studies from Kodak (remember film?) and Apple.
If you come across other readings, podcasts, etc you think speak to the issues we discuss in class, send and email and I’ll get it posted!
Fashioning Sociology 