Module: Social Media: Structures, Practices & Applications

Module Specifications.

Current Academic Year 2024 - 2025

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Date posted: September 2024

Module Title	Social Media: Structures, Practices & Applications
Module Code	CM5011 (ITS) / MCO1041 (Banner)
Faculty	Humanities & Social Sciences	School	Communications
Module Co-ordinator	Tetyana Lokot
Module Teachers	-
NFQ level	9	Credit Rating	5
Pre-requisite	Not Available
Co-requisite	Not Available
Compatibles	Not Available
Incompatibles	Not Available

Coursework Only

Description

This module seeks to provide students with a set of tools to gauge social media practices. In part, the module will develop a theoretical awareness of the different affordances of specific social media within a polymedia or a hybrid media environment; in part, it will critically discuss various user practices and how they feed into beta versions of social media. And in a final part, students will contribute their own experience-based accounts of the different social media. These three parts will provide students with a template for critically assessing different practices.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the specificity of the different social media, and their role in a polymedia environment
2. Develop a set of appropriate criteria for assessing the various user practices
3. Critically evaluate the ways in which social media articulate technical characteristics (affordances) with user practices
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the involvement of different sets of actors in constructing social media
5. Evaluate the role played by dominant players, such as corporations, governments and policy makers in circumscribing social media uses.

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full-time hours per semester
Lecture	22	No Description
Online activity	25	No Description
Assignment Completion	60	Individual and group assignment completion
Independent Study	18	No Description
Total Workload: 125

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Social media in a complex media ecosystem
Hybrid media system; polymedia environment; media ecology; media practices;

Theories of Mediation
Understanding the role of the media, mediation (Silverstone), mediatization (Krotz) and media logic (Altheide and Snow). Sonia Livingstone and the mediation of everything.

Communicative Affordances of Technology
The concept of affordances; techno-social affordances; emerging affordance theories; understanding technology use in context

Algorithms
The nature of algorithms; algorithmic sociality; algorithmic accountability; algorithms, agency and power; algorithms and identity (Bucher)

Users and Engagement
Understanding social media uses and users; uses and gratification theory; gaming, gamification and play; user engagement

Policy and governance of social media
Governing social media platforms and use; key policy stakeholders and governance institutions; moderation, community standards and other policy tools; challenges of social media governance and regulation.

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	100%	Examination Weight	0%

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Course Work Breakdown
Assignment	Case Study Analysis: Deconstruct a specific social media campaign/event/presence	50%	Week 12
Group assignment	Preparation of a group seminar and presentation on a particular social media platform	50%	n/a

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories: Resit category 1: A resit is available for both* components of the module. Resit category 2: No resit is available for a 100% continuous assessment module. Resit category 3: No resit is available for the continuous assessment component where there is a continuous assessment and examination element.
* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a Continuous Assessment/Examination split; where the module is 100% continuous assessment, there will also be a resit of the assessment
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Andrew Chadwick: 2017, The Hybrid Media System, Oxford University Press,
Altheide, D. L., & Snow, R. P.: 1979, Media Logic, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA,
Bolter J. D. and Grusin R. A.: 2000, Remediation, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA,
Hepp. A.: 2012, Cultures of Mediatization, Polity, Cambridge, MA,
Safiya Noble: 2018, Algorithms of Oppression, New York University Press,

Other Resources

0, Book chapter, Bucher, T. and Helmond, A., 2018, The Affordances of Social Media Platforms, Burgess J, Poell T, and Marwick A (eds), The SAGE Handbook of Social Media, Sage, http://www.annehelmond.nl/wordpress/wp-content/uploads//2016/07/BucherHelmond_SocialMediaAffordances-preprint.pdf,