6 ECTS credits
150 h study time
Offer 1 with catalog number 1024177ANR for all students in the 2nd semester
at
a (A) Bachelor - preliminary level.
- Semester
- 2nd semester
- Enrollment based on exam contract
- Impossible
- Grading method
- Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
- Can retake in second session
- Yes
- Enrollment Requirements
- Students must have taken ‘Introduction to Communication Studies', before they can enroll in this course.
- Taught in
- English
- Partnership Agreement
- Under interuniversity agreement for degree program
- Faculty
- Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
- Department
- Communication Sciences
- External partners
- Universiteit Gent
- Educational team
- Maria Vanden Abeele
(course titular)
- Activities and contact hours
- 36 contact hours Lecture
114 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
- Course Content
Sociology concerns the study of the social organization of society. Over the past two decades, digital media have deeply impacted that social organization: They have pervaded almost every area of life. We use digital technologies to work, to entertain ourselves, and to socialize with friends and family. Because digital media use has become so taken-for-granted, we oftentimes fail to see the impact of digital technologies on how we lead our everyday lives. Moreover, we pay little attention to the broader societal implications of their use. Digital media sociology is the study of these implications.
This course gives students an in-depth understanding of the various ways in which digital media technologies have affected the way we do things in our everyday life, and how that, in turn, has led to new forms of social organization of our society. Drawing from a broad range of both classical and modern theories and concepts from sociology, communication sciences and media psychology, it sheds light on a wide range of everyday digital media practices, analyzing the socio-historical evolutions leading to them, how they interact with digital media affordances, how they intersect with the broader organization of society, and what challenges and opportunities arise from that.
We embark on this analysis through the lens of three major ‘logics’ that characterize our contemporary world: The Network, the Social and the Personal logic. When discussing each of these logics, we examine the work of sociologists such as Giddens, Castells, Goffman and Foucault and explore how elements of their work help understand the workings of our digital society.
- Course material
- Digital course material (Required) : A reader: A yearly updated digital reader, compiled of book chapters and scientific articles that are accessible to students via the library
Digital course material (Required) : Lecture slides (which students can supplement with lecture notes)
- Additional info
This course consists of:
- Interactive lectures: Lectures have an interactive format, requiring students to actively engage with the course contents. Lectures are not on default recorded, and should recordings exists, these will not on default be distributed to all students.
- Guided self-study: students need to prepare for the lectures by independently processing scientific literature on the covered subjects before each lecture. Moreover, they will be asked to occasionally prepare smaller (non-compulsory, thus also non-graded) assignments. Students will additionally have the opportunity to ask questions.
Note: due to Covid19 (or other exceptional circumstances), the teaching methods of the course might have to be adapted throughout the semester. Such changes will be communicated through the digital learning platform.
- Learning Outcomes
-
General competences
After completing this course, students are able to:
- name, describe and explain dominant socio-historical evolutions and how they have shaped and are shapen by changes in our digital media landscape, by altering the role of the media user as well as contemporary media practices,
- name, describe, and explain theories and concepts that shed light on how digital media shape the social organization of society,
- name, describe, and explain, analyze and evaluate individual and societal risks, challenges and opportunities associated with the use of digital media,
- apply and illustrate the former theories and concepts in an analysis or evaluation of contemporary issues involving digital media,
- formulate judgment about contemporary issues involving digital media and society as part of one’s critical citizenship.
- Grading
-
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.
Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
- Written Exam
with a relative weight of 100
which comprises 100% of the final mark.
Note: The course evaluation consists of a closed book, written exam with open questions (100% of end grade).
- Additional info regarding evaluation
Not applicable.
- Allowed unsatisfactory mark
- The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.
Academic context
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Social Sciences: Communication Studies