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SoSe 21: Internet Policy

Jeanette Hofmann

Information for students

Within the framework of a cooperation with the Institute for Journalism and Communication Science, a total of 5 seminar places are also offered for interestedMA JFKI students.

Comments

The seminar offers an overview of the different aspects of internet policy. By this we mean the political shaping of digitalisation, i.e. digital infrastructures as well as the applications and information flows based on them. The current debates on Internet policy focuses on the power of platforms and their sources. This includes business models, the enormous data collections and data analytics, which increasingly relies on machine learning methods. What is interesting from an internet policy perspective is the challenges posed by state regulation of platforms. In this context, we will also discuss corresponding legislative initiatives. Furthermore, the seminar will deal with data protection and the monitoring of data traffic in the context of fighting crime and terrorism. We will also take a critical look at the current discussion on digital sovereignty. The seminar has three learning objectives. The first one concerns a basic understanding of internet politics and its lines of conflict: What exactly do the actors in this field argue about and which (normative) positions can be distinguished? Secondly, we will develop an analytical perspective that helps us to examine internet policy controversies. In doing so, we use sociological field theory, which chooses discourses and their institutionalisation as important building blocks of policy fields. Thirdly, in the course of the semester we expand our ability to recognise the contingency, i.e. the open-endedness of internet policy developments: Everything could have turned out differently! Format: The seminar does without presentations; instead, all participants prepare themselves for each individual session. Since the summer semester will again be exclusively digital, we are going to experiment a little with the format, combining elements of a project and a literature seminar. During the semester, students will work in small working groups on a research project to be presented at the end of the semester. Throughout the weekly classes, we will focus on recent academic contributions to internet policy issues. Students of related subjects, especially political science, are welcome but must register in person. Performance requirements: Regular and active participation in a working group and in the online sessions as well as reading the compulsory texts, which we discuss weekly, is obligatory. In addition, students prepare a response paper to one of the compulsory texts (2-3 pages) and briefly summarise the discussion of one session (1-1.5 pages). Towards the end of the semester, the working groups present their research projects in plenary. Term papers on one of the seminar topics can be written according to the requirements of the respective examination regulations. However, a short research proposal in consultation with us is obligatory for submitting a term paper. close