Studying at York
Understanding Social Media - SOC00003M
Module summary
What is the relationship between digital media and society? This module presents a range of relevant topics that emerge from the growth of social media platforms in our everyday lives.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
Module aims
This module presents you with a range of recent debates and developments around different digital platforms, particularly social media ones, providing you with a socio-cultural perspective on them. You will be engaging critically with the main conceptual approaches to understanding the impact of social media on different aspects of individual and social life.
Module learning outcomes
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
-
Demonstrate a critical understanding of the socio-cultural impacts of social media on individual and social life, and its use across different cultures;
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Critically discuss and reflect on recent cases, debates and examples to understand how social media are permeating a range of social institutions and practices;
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Analyse the social, economic, cultural and political factors shaping the design of social media and their diffusion into society;
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Critically evaluate social media's ambiguous nature as both surveillance tools and artefacts for social expression and creativity.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
For formative work - presentation- students will receive written or verbal feedback on how to improve their skills in areas that will contribute towards their summative assessment. The feedback will be aimed at how to build and present a case for a sociological analysis, which will provide practice with the summative assessment which is in line with MLO particularly 2-4.
For summative work - Critical Analysis - students will receive an overall mark and grading in line with the criteria, assessing the skills in writing, presentation of the case and use of the conceptual and theoretical knowledge acquired through the module in line with LOs 1-4. They will also receive written feedback showing areas in which they have done well and those areas in which they need to improve that will contribute to their progress.
Indicative reading
Burgess, J., Marwick, A., Poell, T., 2018. The SAGE Handbook of Social Media. SAGE Publications Ltd
Fuchs, C., 2013. Social Media. A critical understanding, SAGE.
Evans, L., 2015. Locative social media: Place in the digital age. Springer.