FMCS3110Social Media and Network Culture

Course handbook

Description

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.

Availability

Not currently offered.

This Course was last offered in Semester 2 - 2020.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Critically analyse popular discourse on social media technologies.

2. Employ appropriate methodologies in the study of network cultures.

3. Critically evaluate the potential for social media technologies to facilitate the formation of identities, communities, activist movements, and consumer markets.

4. Describe and explain real-life experiences and observations of social media and network cultures.

Content

Course topics will be drawn from:

• Studying Social Media
• Forming Relationships and Community through Social Media
• Youth and Social Media
• User Generated Content
• Social Construction of Technology
• Marketing through Social Networks
• Online News and Social Media
• Transgression and Deception Online

And other relevant topics.

Assessment items

Online Learning Activity: Blog (20%)

Online Learning Activity: Participation in online discussion (40%)

Written Assignment: Written Assignment (40%)