SOCIAL MEDIA & SOCIETY

Catalog description

For better and for worse, life has changed rapidly due to the rise of modern communicative technologies. These changes take place at the domestic and global level, changes which influence both individuals and society. This course will use classical and contemporary theoretical perspectives for the purposes of understanding how social media alters both the macro and micro processes within the social landscape. Course materials will address contemporary issues and transformations of culture and institutions that are in many ways the product of technological expansion and the rise of mediated interaction patterns that are found everywhere in modern society today. Special attention will be paid to the overarching themes of how mediated communication patterns relate to the transformation of social institutions and organizations as well as to cultural production and consumption, communities, socialization, and selfhood.