Lecture Activity: Nosedive + Joan Is Awful

Instructions for each group:

1. Assign a notetaker
2. Assign someone to share out to the larger group at the end
3. Answer the “General Reflection” questions (5 minutes)
4. Answer your group’s assigned questions (10 minutes)

1. Joan is Awful

Everyone: General Reflections

1. What was most memorable / relatable about the episode?
2. How have advances in computation, data collection, and networking (via the Internet) made this world possible?
3. In what ways do you think this fictional world already exists in real life? Who is most impacted?
   • Consider how different people might experience this world differently: celebrities, politicians, children, young people, people belonging to non-dominant social categories relating to race, gender identity, religion?

1.1. Identity

When Joan is Awful airs on Streamberry, an exaggerated version of Joan’s identity of “Source Joan” is put on display for all to see (and judge).

1. What are some examples of a person’s story / everyday experiences / identity being made public either without their permission or in a way that doesn’t reflect the truth? See if you can come up with a few different examples…
   • Consider different mediums (e.g., YouTube, TikTok, video / photo / document leaks, deep fakes, tabloids, journalism, etc.).
2. Who is this most likely to happen to? Are certain social groups (think age, class, race, gender, political affiliation, disability, etc.) more likely to be targeted? See if you can come up with some examples?
3. Before the Internet / AI, do you think it was easier or harder for people to control the narrative around their identities?
4. What is the “same as it always was”? Or has the Internet / AI enabled something fundamentally different?
5. In what ways might people have more control over how they are portrayed in the media? In other words, can you think of some examples of how technologies have been or could be used to resist common tropes and stereotypes about people and social groups?

1.2. Privacy

1. How is Streamberry capturing Joan’s life for all to see?
   • What technologies and social practices are in place that make this possible?
   • Do you think she could reasonably opt out of this?
2. When she goes to see her lawyer, what does the lawyer say? Why can’t she sue them / get them to stop?
3. Connect Joan’s (Annie Murphy) privacy dilemma to the real world: How much data is being collected about your behavior (and where is it coming from)? How much control do you have over this? Beyond having a Netflix series dedicated to ridiculing your life, what are some other harms that can come from ubiquitous data collection?
4. Why is this data capture happening? What benefits does it provide to companies, governments, etc.?
5. What regulations / rules are in place to protect privacy? In the U.S.? Abroad?

1.3. Creative & Skilled Work

1. How are Selma Hayek’s concerns over Streamberry similar to and different from Joan’s?
2. In minute 42 of the episode, Selma tells Joan: “They have taken 100 years of cinema and diminished it to an app. I’m going to go and take that computer and rip the cables out of it…”
   • How do Selma’s concerns relate to the concerns of other artists, videographers, actors, musicians, etc., given recent advances in generative AI?
   • Is it possible to unmake generative AI and “go back” to a time where this wasn’t possible? Is “ripping out the cables” a viable solution?
3. Before Big Data, Generative AI, and the Internet, there were other technological disruptions that affected other kinds of creative work:
   • What is the origin of the term “Luddite” (Google it or ask ChatGPT)?
   • What did the Luddites do? Were they successful?
4. There’s a phrase that’s been “in the air” this year that says, ChatGPT, DALL-E, and other tools “get you to good enough faster” (not necessarily “good” – but “good enough”). What are the pros and cons of a “good enough faster” kind of world?

1.4. “Engagement”

Consider the following interaction in minute 47:00 of the episode:

Streamberry CEO: “Our goal is to create unique, tailored content to each individual in our database. All 800 million of them. The most relatable content imaginable.”

Journalist: But why awful? Why is it all so negative?

Streamberry CEO: “No, that’s a great question, Fatima. We did try more affirmative content in our test…but we found that our subjects didn’t buy it. It didn’t jive with their neurotic view of themselves. When we focused on their more weak or selfish or craven moments…and put them in a state of mesmerized horror – which really drives engagement – they literally can’t look away.”

1. Why are media companies so concerned with “engagement” – how does it help them? Be as specific as you can.
2. How has engagement with media changed with the evolution of the Internet? Is this a good thing? A bad thing? Both?
3. Do you agree with the Streamberry CEO that the most engaging, relatable content is negative?
4. “Personalization” is a term that typically has a positive spin. What are the pros and cons of having content delivered to you that is “personalized.” What does “personal” mean to a platform?

II. Nosedive

Everyone: General Reflections

1. What was most memorable / relatable about the episode?
2. How have advances in computation, data collection, and networking (via the Internet) made this world possible?
3. In what ways do you think this fictional world already exists in real life? Who is most impacted?
   • Consider how different people might experience this world differently: celebrities, politicians, children, young people, people belonging to non-dominant social categories relating to race, gender identity, religion?

2.1. Measurement Systems

1. What is being measured?
2. How is meaning assigned to a score? In other words, what is the “practical significance” of one’s score in everyday life?
3. How does the system not only “measure” reality, but also shape it?
4. What resources & opportunities are conferred / denied to people with low / high scores?
5. Is this system meritocratic?

2.2. The Politics of Measurement

1. Who is most vulnerable in a system like this? Why?
2. How do you think this system came to be? Do you think an authoritarian regime imposed it, or do you think that people willingly accepted a system like this over time?
3. In what ways does this world already exist?
   • See if you can come up with 2-3 examples of how scoring – either on an online platform or in “the real world” – impacts the opportunities you have.