Department of English

This course looks under the hood of online video to consider the often hotly-debated regulatory, legal, and technical changes that have shaped YouTube, Netflix, and iTunes as well as file sharing sites. Weekly topics include surveillance and privacy, intellectual property, network neutrality, media ownership, user-generated content, peer-to-peer networks, wireless spectrum, and mobile media, among other topics. Readings are drawn from a wide range of documents, from manifestoes to legal decisions to scholarly essays. We will consider the history of the internet as well as its current state and possible futures. Students will be expected to do original research that they will present in class and write up as research papers. The syllabus will be available at decherney.org