So, in case you didn’t know, there’s going to be a conference on social media and its connection to Social Justice at Brandeis pretty soon. Super cool, right? This combines my passions for computers with my drive for Social Justice. I’m totally excited.
Here’s the agenda: TMI. Social Justice in a Facebook Age v2
Anyways, one way to get involved in the conference (beyond, you know, showing up and listening) is by joining the “Student Challenge”.
It’s still in the planning stages right now, but here’s how the latest draft describes it:
Assignment: Two groups of up to 15 undergraduate students each will gather material at the conference, do research outside the conference, and compile reports on the questions: Are New Media Transformative? How for Better, How for Worse? using both traditional and non-traditional reporting tools and methods.
More info here: student_challenge_draft_4
Check it out.
Speaking of, this is a really cool article on the class and racial divisions that, among other things, underlie the MySpace-Facebook divide. This should give anyone pause before declaring that the online world is “equal” and doesn’t reproduce deep social divides: http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html.