Overview

This unit focusses on how people use social media to construct their individual identity. It explores key issues relating to networked media technologies and how they shape identity and personal experiences. The unit looks at how the self is increasingly performed, through a range of media platforms, in ways that blur the boundaries between public and private. In particular, it examines how data analytics and algorithms drive many of the decisions of these existing and emerging social media platforms.

Requisites

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 2
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
29-July-2024
27-October-2024
Last self-enrolment date
11-August-2024
Census date
31-August-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
13-September-2024
Results released date
03-December-2024

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Evaluate cultural practices and relationships to contemporary networked media technologies
  • Critically analyse key media concepts in networked cultural context
  • Evaluate cultural practices in relation to networked cultures and technologies; formulate critical arguments and present findings
  • Critically evaluate the significance of data analytics in the shaping of identity across multiple social media platforms

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
On-campus
Lecture		2.00 12 weeks 24
On-campus
Class		1.00 12 weeks 12
Specified Activities
Various		3.00 12 weeks 36
Unspecified Activities
Various		6.50 12 weeks 78
TOTAL150

Sarawak

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Online
Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning		12.50 12 weeks 150
On-campus
Lecture		2.00 12 weeks 24
On-campus
Class		1.00 12 weeks 12
Specified Activities
Various		3.00 12 weeks 36
Unspecified Activities
Various		6.50 12 weeks 78
TOTAL300

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Online AssignmentIndividual 30% 2,4 
Research EssayIndividual 40% 1,2,3,4 
Tutorial PresentationIndividual/Group 30% 1,2,4 

Content

  • Media Worlds and Social Selves
  • Selfie Cultures and new methods for data visualisation and analysis
  • Sharing economies, fans and intellectual property
  • Selling Sociality: platforms, monetisation and data analytics
  • Surveillance and Privacy
  • Anonymity and Social Media
  • Microcelebrity and the branded self
  • Media Activism and Global Citizen Movements
  • Feminism: violence, trolling and gender
  • Memory, memorialisation and the right to be forgotten

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.