• 24Mar





    More detail after the cut.

    This is still in the drafting stages, but I wanted to be able to give people an idea of what the course will be about. So here’s the summary:

    In the early days of the Internet, it was seen as a repository of data, a “giant library” to be consulted by information seekers, or a “shop window” where individuals and organizations could put themselves on display for “browsing.” The online world has since undergone a massive transformation, metamorphosing into an interactive environment where people engage in dynamic, ongoing conversations and actively produce as well as consume content in every imaginable form. Today’s tumultuous media environment requires both media professionals and ordinary users to not only know how to use the various tools available, but also to understand and critically reflect on the roles these tools play in shaping public discourse.

    This course will introduce students to the contexts and forms of social media. What are social media, who uses them, who gains from them, and how are they transforming the social landscape? Students will become familiar with a range of social media tools, analyze and discuss their uses and implications, and develop what media scholar Trebor Scholz calls “participation literacy.”

    The course will tentatively address the following topics:
    What are social media?
    A brief history of social media
    Cultures and community in social media
    Taking it mobile: Social media and technological convergence
    The economics of social media
    Social media, ethics, and the law
    Measuring, monitoring, and analyzing social media trends and impact

    Folksonomy, feedback, and the semantic web: tagging, social bookmarking and rating tools
    Part soapbox, part community: exploring the blogosphere
    Visually interacting: Flickr, YouTube, iMeem, Vimeo, &c.
    The social dimensions of maps and location-based apps
    Meta and micro: Discussion boards and online forums
    From Friendster to MySpace to Facebook to LinkedIn: Social networking sites
    Twitter and streaming microinteraction
    Wikis, or crowdsourced information and creation
    Fandoms, or communities of multimedia producer-consumers

    Social media and the news
    Social media and organizations
    Social media and government/public affairs
    Social media, identity, and society
    The global dimensions of social media

    Most of the readings will be from articles, many will be online sources, and I’m still deciding on the books. In any case, this isn’t really a “textbook” course; I fully expect the readings to change radically throughout the semester, since the world of social media is constantly shifting. That makes planning ahead a tad difficult… but it’s the exciting kind of challenge.

    I’m really looking forward to exploring these topics with students.