Social Media

This is a developmental space for a cross disciplinary course in social media. Contact Leigh if you would like to get involved. See The course blog for updates and notes from past events.

Social media has its roots in a number of areas of thought, following a number of paths of development that we can review today. Where it is leading is still up for grabs, your best guess is through "participation".

In this course we will consider the messages of leading social media commentators, hear from practitioners in fields specific to your interest areas, learn how to use a range of popular social media platforms, and develop reference texts to ensure your learning is captured and useful to you beyond the course.

Although the course appears structured and defined, it is open to the customisation you need, or projects you want to do. Think of it more like an event and opportunity to try out and learn things with others, with support from people with experience, and with a structure available if you're entirely new to the field.

You will find this course is particularly relevant to you if you work in communications, journalism, design, art and media, marketing, teaching and training, social science, health, research, facilitation, community work, civic work, and other areas affected by socially constructed media and communications.

Assignments

To focus learning objectives and manage formal assessment (if required), there are 3 assignments. Completion of these assignments is only required if you are seeking formal assessment and accreditation.

1. A tutorial weblog
2. A presentation
3. A Wikibook chapter

Objectives

1. Define social media and explain its general impact on a specific discipline, profession or public interest area
2. Evaluate at least three different social media platforms or applications, identifying their use, risk and challenges in a specific discipline, profession or public interest area
3. Setup and use popular social media applications
4. Engage in critical discourse around issues related to social media in a specific discipline, profession or public interest area

Topics

The lectures for this unit are always developing. Each lecture has its own page and is linked in the list below. Each page will have a link to a presentation, notes for that presentation, and further readings, links and resources.

1. Webism - The Internet as a social movement
2. It's the best of times, it's the worst of times - The pros and cons of social media to date
3. The machine is us/ing us - Privacy, data, economic models and other basis’ for social media services
4. An anthropological introduction to Youtube - Cultures and trends in large social media networks
5. Radical transparency - Open source and participatory economics, mashup, sampling and re appropriation culture
6. The evolution will be socialised - Proposals and activism for alternative approaches to policy and governance
7. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
8. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
9. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
10. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
11. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
12. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*

*Guest lectures, panel discussions, or interviews will be arranged based on the interests of participants in this course, and on topical events occurring during this course. The unit convener will make arrangements for these lectures. If you have suggestions, please contact the unit convener, or discuss it during prior lectures and tutorials.

Tutorials

The tutorials for this unit are under development. Each tutorial has its own page and is linked in the list below. Each page will have a link to recordings, notes, and further readings, links and resources.

1. Get ready
2. Set up a blog
3. Editing a Mediawiki
4. Set up an RSS reader
5. Bookmarking and tagging
6. Photos and video online
7. Participant presentations
8. Participant presentations
9. Participant presentations
10. Participant presentations
11. Participant presentations
12. Participant presentations

Discipline applied

The following links are to discipline areas participating in this course. Through their involvement, you can expect learning support in areas that relate to these disciplines.

1. Sport
2. Facilitating Online
3. Health and the Social Web
4. Business and governance
5. Using social media for teaching and research
6. Art and Design

Further development

See the discussion page for notes on further developing this course. Some plans exist to create more advanced levels of this course for 2012.

to be included

1. https://webwewant.mozilla.org/en/

See Also

• Internet Fundamentals/Social Media