HU Credits:
2
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
Communication & Journalism
Semester:
1st Semester
Teaching Languages:
Hebrew
Campus:
Mt. Scopus
Course/Module Coordinator:
Coordinator Office Hours:
Teaching Staff:
Dr. Nicholas John
Course/Module description:
This course offers a wide-ranging perspective on issues raised by the rise and rise of the internet and social media in contemporary society. It asks what role the internet and social media play in our lives, and how this role is related to their social, cultural, political and economic context.
Course/Module aims:
This course aims to familiarize students with the key issues in today’s debates concerning the place of the internet and social media in contemporary society. It also aims to present the theoretical issues raised by the central place in social and economic life of the internet and social media.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1) Place the rise of the internet and social media in their social context
2) Evaluate claims in popular discourse about effects of social media
3) Analyze the relationship between social media and interpersonal relations
4) Critically assess the power relations that have emerged around the internet and social media
Attendance requirements(%):
100
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Frontal lectures and a great deal of class discussion.
Students will present a social media technology in groups (see below).
Students will have to complete two creative exercises during the semester.
Course/Module Content:
Depending on the pace of the course and topics that are of greatest interest to the students, the issues that this course will discuss include:
* Some historical background
* What are “new media”?
* Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and interpersonal relations
* The internet, capitalism and online advertising
* Search
* Memory and death on the internet
* The internet, social media and politics
* Privacy
* Ideologies of internet – promises versus reality
* Disconnectivity, unfriending, abstaining
* The future
Required Reading:
To be published
Additional Reading Material:
To be published
Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 70 %
Presentation 20 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 10 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %
Additional information:
In the second half of the semester, groups of students will present an internet or social media technology in a way that makes heavy use of that technology. These technologies might include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Secret, SnapChat, etc.
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