Social Media and Network Culture

This course will examine "social media" from a cultural perspective, with a focus on networked communication in practices of everyday life and in the construction of social relationships and identities. We will work from an expansive definition of what constitutes "social media", considering social network sites, smartphone apps, and online games, among other technologies. The course will explore tools we can use to study the place of social media in culture, and specific themes of community, constructions of youth, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality, news and political activism, commercial uses and economic benefits. The course itself will involve communication in social media channels in addition to self-directed tasks and online discussion, thus we will be actively participating in the phenomena under study as we go.