Social Media Research Autumn 2018 Thursday 12:00 PM AVC Lecturer: Tae-Sik Kim, PhD Office Hour: Wed 1:30 – 4:00 PM & Thu 10:30 – 1:00 PM Contact Information: beinkid@mail.muni.cz Office. 5. 50 Ø Course Objectives This course examines the sociocultural impacts of social media, the most advanced form of human communicative technology. Grounded in the understanding of the relationship between technology and society, this course looks closely at technological features of social media as well as the cultural consequences of mediated interactions among people. The course then turns to particular issues in relation to the uses of social media. By reading a variety of research articles assigned in the course and participating in class discussions, students learn to develop their own research projects focusing on social media and its sociocultural impacts. § Comprehend the relationship between technology and society. § Understand various social impacts of social media. § Review and analyze a variety of research articles on social media. § Find important themes and methods of social media research § Lead insightful discussions. § Develop a research project by applying sociocultural experiences. Ø Syllabus Week 1. Course introduction Week 2. Technology and culture Week 3. What is Social Media? (First Response Paper Due: Midnight Tue 2. 10) Week 4. Social media and Politics Week 5. Social Media Journalism Week 6. Social Media and Social Changes (Second Response Paper Due: Midnight Tue 25. 10) Week 7. Reading Week Week 8. Capital in the Age of Social Media Week 9. Social media and Intercultural Communication (Midterm Report Due: Midnight Tue 14. 11) Week 10. Social Media for the Old and the Young Week 11. Social Media and Visual Communication Week 12. “Critical” Social Media Studies (Third Response Paper Due: Midnight Tue 4. 12) Week 13. Class Conference. Ø Literatures Reading Articles: See, below. Ø Teaching Methods The format of the course is a combination of brief lectures and controlled discussions of various assigned readings. All students are expected to read all articles assigned and to develop appropriate discussion questions. Each student is a discussion leader for an assigned week. Students submit a research paper (topic of student’s choice in consultation with instructor; minimum 20 pages including references, figures, and tables). Ø Assessment Methods · Attendance: 3 unexcused absences during a semester shall be denied academic credit v Response Papers (150 x 3 = 450) ü Essay on related topics with 2 discussion questions. ü Due dates are indicated above ü No Late Paper Accepted · One Discussion Leader (100) · Midterm Report (50): Research Plan and Outline · Research Paper (400): Due- Midnight, Monday 7. January. 2019 (Late Paper – Subtract 5% for each day after the due date) Total: 1000 A: 900-1000 B: 800-899 C: 700-799 D: 600-699 E: 500-599 F: -499 Ø Study Materials All materials, with the exception of book chapters available in the library and articles available online, will be provided in PDF format. Week 3. Technology and culture · McLuhan, M. “Understanding Media” Introduction, Chapter 1, and 2 · Mumford, L. “Technics and Civilization” Introduction and Chapter 1 · Castells, M. (2000). Toward a sociology of the network society. Contemporary Sociology, 29 (5), 693-699. Week 4. What is Social Media · Boyd, D. (2014). It's complicated: The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press. Introduction, CHAPTER Week 5. Social media & Politics · Bulut, E. (2016). Social media and the nation state: of revolution and collaboration. Media, Culture & Society, 38(4), 606-618. · Sunstein, C. R. (2018). # Republic: Divided democracy in the age of social media. Princeton University Press. CHAPTER 3 & 4 Week 5. Social Media Journalism · Brandtzaeg, P. B., Lüders, M., Spangenberg, J., Rath-Wiggins, L., & Følstad, A. (2016). Emerging journalistic verification practices concerning social media. Journalism Practice, 10(3), 323-342. · Mele, N., Lazer, D., Baum, M., Grinberg, N., Friedland, L., Joseph, K., ... & Mattsson, C. (2017). Combating Fake News: An Agenda for Research and Action. · Hladík, R., & Štětka, V. (2017). The powers that tweet: Social media as news sources in the Czech Republic. Journalism Studies, 18(2), 154-174. Week 6. Social Media and Social Changes (Choose 3 articles to read) · Shirky, C. (2011). The political power of social media: Technology, the public sphere, and political change. Foreign Affairs. · Lim, M. (2012). Clicks, cabs, and coffee houses: Social media and oppositional movements in Egypt, 2004–2011. Journal of Communication, 62(2), 231-248. · DeLuca, K. M., Lawson, S., & Sun, Y. (2012). Occupy Wall Street on the public screens of social media: The many framings of the birth of a protest movement. Communication, Culture & Critique, 5(4), 483-509. · Poell, T. (2014). Social media and the transformation of activist communication: exploring the social media ecology of the 2010 Toronto G20 protests. Information, Communication & Society, 17(6), 716-731. Week 7. Capital in the Age of Social Media · Polson, E, (2016). Privileged Mobilities. Peter Lang. P1-52 Week 9. Social Media and Intercultural Communication · Pfister, D. S., & Soliz, J. (2011). (Re)Conceptualizing Intercultural Communication in a Networked Society. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 4, 246–251 · Kim, Tae-Sik (2016). Transnational communication practices by unaccompanied Korean young students in the United States, Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 25(2). 148-167. · Lin, X., Lachlan, K. A., & Spence, P. R. (2016). Exploring extreme events on social media: A comparison of user reposting/retweeting behaviors on twitter and weibo. Computers in Human Behavior, 65, 576-581. Week 10. Social Media for the Old and the Young (Choose 3 articles to read) · Subrahmanyam, K. & Greenfield, P. (2008). Online communication and adolescent relationships. The Future of Children, 18 (1), 119-146 · boyd, danah. (2007) “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life.” MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. · Gibson, L., Moncur, W., Forbes, P., Arnott, J., Martin, C., & Bhachu, A. S. (2010, September). Designing social networking sites for older adults. In Proceedings of the 24th BCS Interaction Specialist Group Conference (pp. 186-194). British Computer Society. · Harley, D., & Fitzpatrick, G. (2012). Appropriation of social networking by older people: two case studies. Week 11. Social Media and Visual Communication · Borges-Rey, E. (2015). News Images on Instagram: The paradox of authenticity in hyperreal photo reportage. Digital Journalism, 3(4), 571-593 · Kim, T-S. (2015) Defining the Occupy Movement: Visual Analysis of Facebook Profile Images Posted by Local Occupy Movement Group, Visual Communication Quarterly, 22(3), 174-186 · Murray, D. C. (2015). Notes to self: the visual culture of selfies in the age of social media. Consumption Markets & Culture, 18(6), 490-516. Week 12. “Critical” Social Media Studies · Fuchs, C. (2014). Social media: A critical introduction. Sage. Chapter 5, 7, 8, 11