Lecturer(s)

Prof. dr. R. Rogers (coord.); dr. G. Mueller

Entry requirements 

For 2^nd or 3^rd year honours students only. 

Recommended prior knowledge

None.

Learning Objectives

Upon conclusion of the course, the student should be able to:

• Rehearse the leading contemporary critiques of social media in the (tech) press;
• Compile the leading claims about social media and test them through (academic) literature review of a conceptual character; and
• Analyse claims about social media from the press and the academic literature through empirical literature review.

Content

Social media, once heralded as a means to strengthen and extend social bonds and research about ‘tastes and ties’, has been critiqued for its commodification of the personal data they collect and the free labour they exploit. Its algorithms also have been the source of scrutiny for augmenting filter bubbles and the sharing of similar content among the like-minded. More recently, social media have been implicated in the debacle surrounding fake news and Russian influencing campaigns, where the platforms were said to aid in both the supercharging as well as the weaponisation of propaganda, often in the form of memes. Social media continues to be held accountable, as witnessed in compelling congressional and parliamentary testimony, for the abuse of their platforms, not only in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but through sophisticated audience segmentation and profiling that allows for the micro-targeting of ads. Through all the critique, diagnostics work (algorithmic auditing), ad platform deconstruction as well as repurposing research (digital methods) have been undertaken to study both how and for whom the media ‘work’ but also whether one can study social trends and cultural preferences through likes and shares, among other in-built indicators. The course provides a thorough review of the critique as well as the critical empirical study both of and with social media. 

Class contents

• Lectures
• Seminars
• Oral and written feedback.

Assessment:

• 50% - Essay (3,000 words) on the leading social media critiques in the (tech) press, tested in the conceptual academic literature
• 50% - Essay (3,000 words) on the leading social media critiques in the (tech) press and conceptual academic literature, tested in the empirical academic literature
• Retakes are allowed only for those who have passed in a complete version of essay by the deadline.

Min/max participants

max.25

Schedule

Check Datanose for the exact information.

Study material

Academic articles, book chapters, opinion pieces and newspaper articles to be made available on Canvas at the beginning of the course.

Registration

Registration is possible for 2nd year (of higher) students participating in an Honours programme from 7 December 2018 10.00 till 11 December 2018 23.00 through the online registration form that will appear on Honoursmodules IIS.

Placement will be at random. If there are still spots open after the application deadline, students will still be able to register.

For questions: please contact Honours-iis@uva.nl