Group Assignment: Net Neutrality
85C (2021) Group Assignment: Net Neutrality
Net neutrality is a contentious issue in media policy, and continues to be debated actively. Consider what you learned in class about older and newer media networks, and about network effects: our 85c lectures, screenings, and readings have informed you about historic and contemporary perspectives on the stakes online. On one side, you have the basic principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. On the other side, you have arguments that certain internet uses (online gaming, streaming video, file sharing, etc) might place disproportionate burdens on net service providers that require financial investment and technical innovation.
This group project will have you team up to research, present, and debate the most salient aspects of net neutrality. Documenting each of the three steps will earn your group academic credit in this class. Each step will take place partly in the 85C discussion sections and partly in between meetings.
Each 85C discussion section will be divided into three groups for this project. Group 1 will research, present, and debate the major arguments in favor of net neutrality based on general principles; group 2 will take the position of industry lobbyists arguing against the principle of net neutrality with particular attention to technical investment and innovation; and group 3 will argue against net neutrality for specific political cases.
Group 3: You are politicians who argue that internet service providers need to have the ability to throttle or block certain data, for instance to prevent malicious actors spreading disinformation on YouTube or TikTok, to prevent dangerous viral deepfakes on Facebook from derailing elections, and to prevent large-scale file sharing online because you believe it is mostly illegal circumvention of copyright. You are also concerned that certain online activities are a significant burden for the internet that takes bandwidth away from other traffic, so your arguments may present gaming and file sharing as unequal burdens on the network and its expected quality of service.
Each group will use the week two discussion section to start researching the resources provided, and to prepare a persuasive presentation for the following week (but you will probably want to continue doing some of this work between meetings). Each five-minute presentation in the week three discussion section will be debated with the other groups; to make this possible, presentations need to be both very succinct and very well informed. Your group’s grade on this assignment depends on your preparation, presentation, and discussion performances, so make sure all members of your group contribute in ways the TA can recognize.
After your presentations and debates, each student needs to upload a brief document (use DOC or PDF format to upload to Canvas) that states your name and student ID#, picks one representative quote from one of the relevant readings (a different one for each group member!), one sentence explaining that quote in your own words, and one or two sentences providing your argument or spin on this quote and its importance.
I put done our week 2’s reading and film and lecture, if you want.
Week 2 reading: https://daily.jstor.
https://sherlock.ischool.
Film: https://www.youtube.com/
Lecture: https://we.tl/t-
Requirements: | .ppt file
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