Special Topics in Media Studies: Analysis of Online Identity. This course will explore how digital media technologies inform strategies of self-presentation and practices of identity formation. We will draw on sociological theories of identity to examine how the internet and mobile media challenge traditional understandings of concepts such as anonymity, authenticity, reputation, and privacy and explore how the emergence of an “attention economy” has encouraged practices of “micro-celebrity” and “self-branding.” Students will be asked to think critically about the ways in which traditional identity markers – such as race, gender, and class – are undermined or privileged in digital environments.