Media Culture and Heritage

Network neutrality is a critical principle that defines the Internet's network design. Broadly, network neutrality refers to the notion that "the network itself should be neutral and not specialized for any specific applications or platforms." As such, it should "treat all kinds of information, content and sites equally." 1 Debates over network neutrality center around whether or not Internet network operators should be able to alter the quality of access to content based on a content provider's ability to pay for faster download speeds or speedier access.

In this paper, I examine how Jürgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Hans-Georg Gadamer deal with the subject of discursive-consensus formation in their work. I argue that while Habermas's theory of communicative action provides a comparative benchmark on the subject of consensus, and Gadamer's work on hermeneutics supports him to an extent, Derrida's focus on deconstruction and the critique of metaphysics and Foucault's project of disrupting sedimented discourses present markedly divergent opinions on the subject. As such, I also look at the ethical and political implications of each of their respective positions specific to the issues of consensus, understanding, and dialogue.

In this paper, I examine the discursive field of geoengineering by unpacking how particular members, associates and academics allied with private institutes frame, treat and discursively construct a justification of geoengineering technologies. I begin with a brief introduction to geoengineering, followed by a discussion of relevant international agreements and an overview of critical discourse analysis. I outline several discursive strategies employed by scientific and political advocates of geoengineering to reify a particular understanding of its need. While there are multiple ways geoengineering is being framed by a wide variety of actors, I discuss the framings of the market and exceptionalism made by The American Enterprise Institute, The Climate Response Fund and The Climate Institute in detail which I then supplement by some additional material where appropriate.

This course is an introduction to the theory of communication as a distinct discipline. We can define the field of communication loosely as concerned with studying the processes by which people interactively create, sustain, and manage meaning. In this sense, language, science, the media, technology, culture, society, and philosophy are a few of the many areas in which communication studies is relevant. We begin this course by mapping the origins of the field, beginning with media effects and theories of communication, then move on to policy, theories of technology, critical theory etc., and finish with the philosophy of language and the key debates between structuralism/poststructuralism.