Module overview
Digital media have come to influence and shape the ways we live and engage with others. In this module you will engage with the impact of social media on our lives in a number of ways, for example, to gain an understanding of how social media has assisted in amplifying voices calling for social justice, shaped grassroots political activism and brought hidden global issues to international attention.
The module will offer an introduction to issues, influences and disruptors within the social media ecosphere and wider communications fields. You’ll gain an understanding of the global communications industry in a digital age with a specific focus on issues of social justice.
You’ll explore key concepts, e.g. some selected uses of algorithms, and learn to use data-driven approaches to content creation and debate your own creative approaches to digitally campaigning about issues that are relevant and interesting to you and your peers.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- analyse, apply and critically evaluate various aspects of film and media theory.
- critique a digital text (such as film, TV programme, blog, podcast, game), and review the quality of the finished product made by professional producers or a peer group
- locate, synthesise, evaluate and organise evidence as part of the process of addressing issues within film studies.
- demonstrate the ability to analyse and synthesise complex information and work with a variety of intellectual and professional processes.
- comment on the agenda and priorities of professional practitioners.
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- how to engage critically in the analysis of digital media texts.
- the production, distribution, exhibition, reception, and consumption of digital media texts.
- historical and contemporary debates about media technologies.
- how to apply the skills and techniques studied during your degree to the benefit of industry and society.
- how the social media industries are organised, the cultural, political, and economic contexts in which they operate, and their social significance.
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- communicate effectively in writing.
- manage an independent research project effectively.
- start developing your skills in decision-making and time management.
Syllabus
As part of the module you will engage with the broader societal impacts of social media on both a micro and a macro level. In addition you will further your understanding of the ethical and environmental responsibilities that you have as a future (present) content creator.
Typically, you will use tools and data as appropriate to identify and understand audiences to enable you to understand how campaigns are shaped in order to appeal to specific target groups. You will see how content planning tools are used to better understand the relationship between different forms of media (e.g., organic, paid social media content, influencer marketing strategies). You will gain insights into how algorithms are used to shape timelines and search results.
You will examine key topics and debates regarding media, power, and social justice, including key contributions on how we understand media, and engage with other postmodern scholars (e.g. Jean Baudrillard, Mark Fisher) to equip you with the language to articulate academic deconstructions of image(s) and networks. You will also consider alternative analytic frameworks that foreground social justice issues, such as intersectionality and critics such as Kimberlé Crenshaw. Case studies from social media campaigns (both centralised and decentralised) will be examined, and the impact that they had on culture and society will be debated, taking into consideration the implications for social justice.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Tutor-led sessions and workshops will enable you to to:
- examine case studies of best practice to discover how to effectively communicate through social media to have a message make the greatest impact.
- gain an understanding of critical theories of social media and society, including both foundational and contemporary intellectual traditions and analytical frameworks.
- use software and tools to understand how to develop innovative communication strategies.
- demonstrate an awareness of online communities and how they grow both online and offline.
Your independent study time will allow you to
- develop your understanding of new and emerging medias to produce tangible artefacts.
- investigate the social, cultural, political, and economic roles assumed by social media, considering how communicative participation, representation, and social equality are enabled and enriched, and constrained and compromised.
- gain a practical understanding of emerging digital services and trends that are ever evolving.
- evaluate debates about media, capitalism, and corporate power; advertising, entertainment, and consumer society; the ‘culture industry’; media, inequality, and justice; media and ‘race’/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and intersections between these and other identities; and media and ecological crisis.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Teaching | 20 |
| Guided independent study | 130 |
| Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Marisol Sandoval (2014). From Corporate to Social Media. Routledge.
Sue Curry Jansen, et al. (2011). Media and Social Justice. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kimberle Crenshaw (2022). On Intersectionality. New Press.
Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, et al. (eds) (2021). Uncertain Archives: Critical Key Words for Big Data. MIT.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Audio-visual assessment | 50% |
| Supporting portfolio | 50% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Audio-visual assessment | 50% |
| Supporting portfolio | 50% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Audio-visual assessment | 50% |
| Supporting portfolio | 50% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal & External