Subject Area: Media, Culture and Technology

This course draws on contemporary theoretical and empirical work from the fields of media and social semiotics to explore new media practices across social media platforms. A central focus is understanding the new forms of sociality that are emerging in relation to these new technologies. We will investigate how identities are performed and communities are formed through close analysis of the communicative patterns observable in both small and large sets of social media texts. Of particular interest is how opinion and sentiment are construed in these texts. Students will reflect on their own social media practices as well as engaging with a range of case studies.