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Syllabus Internet Social Media and Society - 50014
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Last update 28-10-2014
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 Email:

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.
 
Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for Diagnosis and Support of Students with Learning Disabilities, or the Office for Students with Disabilities, as early as possible, to discuss and coordinate accommodations, based on relevant documentation.
For further information, please visit the site of the Dean of Students Office.
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