Dr. Striphas' current research focuses on the relationship of culture and technology. More specifically, his work explores the historical conditions by means of which algorithms and computational processes have come to play a critical role in cultural decision making; it also considers the contemporary effects of 'algorithmic culture' on human thought, conduct, and expression. Striphas is author of The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control (2009) and Algorithmic Culture Before the Internet (2023), both published by Columbia University Press.
keywords
communication, cultural studies, technology studies, media studies, digital technology, digital culture, print culture, history of the book, science and technology studies, algorithmic culture, critical information studies, scholarly communication, critical theory
Teaching
courses taught
COMM 3610 - Communication, Technology, and Society
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Spring 2020 / Fall 2020 / Spring 2021 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2022
Examines how electronic media influence our communication in relationships and communities. Focuses on how we use technology to create shared meanings, express identities, and coordinate interaction, and why such efforts succeed and fail. Also focuses on political and ethical questions concerning the development of communication technology in a global society characterized by conflict and inequality. Recommended prerequisites: COMM 1210 and COMM 1600.
COMM 4610 - Senior Seminar: Communication Studies of Science and Technology
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Spring 2019
Requires students to synthesize and demonstrate what they've learned in the major. Please refer to the specific description listed for the current semester. Each seminar will vary greatly in format and content.
COMM 6010 - Communication Research and Theory
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2019
Provides an introduction to graduate study of communication, offering an overview of the discipline and its scholarship. Required for MA and Ph.D. communication students.
COMM 6200 - Seminar: Selected Topics
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Fall 2020
Facilitates understanding of current and past theory and research on a selected topic in communication and the ability to develop new theory and research on that topic. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours on different topics.
COMM 6360 - Social and Cultural Theory
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Spring 2018
Traces select traditions in social and/or cultural theory, emphasizing how those traditions affect and are affected by the field of rhetoric studies. Examines the origins and resolutions of major debates in social and/or cultural theory from a rhetorical perspective. Recommended prerequisite: COMM 5320.
MDST 2002 - Media and Communication History
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Fall 2022 / Spring 2024
Examines the historical development of communication forms, tools, technologies and institutions (orality, writing, printing, photography, film, radio, television, computers, internet); their influence on culture (forms of expression and social relationships); and their impact on social and individual experience. Applies knowledge of communication history to contemporary social issues and problems in media and society, domestically and internationally.
MDST 6250 - Algorithms, Culture, and Power
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Spring 2023
Explores how automated computational processes (algorithms) affect the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of media and other cultural goods. Also examines the history and politics of algorithms with respect to their growing prevalence in daily life. Foregrounds themes of power, identity, bias, aesthetics, infrastructure, epistemology, and political economy. Employs theories and methods from media studies, science and technology studies, digital humanities, and/or cultural studies.
MDST 7011 - Proseminar in Media Communication Theory 1
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Fall 2023 / Fall 2024
Introduces the principal concepts, literature, and theoretical and paradigmatic perspectives of media studies and mass communication and their ties and contributions to parallel domains in the social sciences and humanities. Formerly MDST 7011.