Digital Media and Society

Core modules:

Academic Skills and Literacy

This 'zero credit''module is designed to support students as they progress through semester 1 of their Digital Media and Society postgraduate degree at the University of Sheffield.

Perspectives on Digital Society

This unit examines key issues in researching digital society and the relationship between digital media and society. The unit introduces key concepts that have shaped understanding of digital developments and evaluates debates about how these developments a) have been shaped by the societies in which they have emerged and b) shape those societies. It develops students' understanding of the social, cultural, political, economic and technical contexts in which digital developments emerge,. Topics covered include, but are not limited to: key concepts; users, producers or produsers; identity, representation and self-representation; internet governance and regulation; privacy and publicness; visual digital society; big data and datafication; mobility; gaming and gamification; changing work practices; alternative digital media; health, well-being, education and work.

15 credits

Digital Methods

This unit introduces students to new and emerging methods for carrying out digital research that is, digital methods. Digital methods are natively digital techniques for researching the natively digital (for example, social media content, likes and shares; blog posts and comments; hyperlinks; tag clouds; folksonomies; search engines; recommender culture) (Rogers 2013). Digital methods include social media insights and analytics, social network analysis, issue network analysis, data visualisation, and data sprints, amongst others. As well as learning how to use these tools, techniques and processes, students on this module will evaluate them, the context of their emergence (and sometimes rapid decline). They will develop an understanding of how digital methods are used to create knowledge. In this way, the module addresses questions of web epistemology, information politics, ethics, device critique, and the social life of methods.

15 credits

Researching Society

This unit introduces students to key theories, principles and practices in social research. It provides an overview of the research process in the social sciences, with direct consideration of research design, different methodological approaches, a range of methods available and good ethical standards. It provides students with theoretical understandings and the practical skills required to design and develop a small-to-medium scale research project.

15 credits

Digital Media in a Datafied Society

This unit examines the social consequences of widespread use of social media, a key characteristic of digital society. It explores what happens as a result of the digitised and networked sharing of personal information and life experiences of all kinds, in times of datafication (that is, the transformation into data, numbers and statistics aspects of social life which formerly did not exist in such forms). The unit reviews theoretical literature on social media, data and society and addresses specific debates and issues, including: social media data mining; social media surveillance; the economic value of social media data; data tracking, privacy, rights and data subjects; governing social media data mining; data activism and open data; data visualisation; new forms of data work; data and everyday life.

15 credits

Dissertation in Digital Media and Society

This unit enables students to undertake an in-depth study on a topic of their own choice, which relates to digital media and society, and is guided by one-to-one academic supervision. It aims to enable students to develop and demonstrate skills in the planning, definition and management of a substantial piece of enquiry on digital media and society. The dissertation may take the form of a theoretical literature-based analysis, an empirical exploration, either through primary or secondary research, a work-experience-based piece of work, or it may incorporate elements of digital media production.

60 credits

You can take a minimum of 45 and a maximum of 60 credits from this group.

The Digital Self

This module explores how gender, age, race, class and other identities are being reimagined in what various commentators have called a 'social media age'. It provides students with an in-depth understanding of social media platforms, roles in people's identity negotiations, examining users' social media identities in different global contexts, and paying close attention to the intersections between different identities. It reviews debates about self and identity formations from the earliest digital media moments and considers contemporary concerns, such as: anonymity and agency; selfies and influencers; online censorship, resistance and collective identities; social media fandoms; disconnection and digital detox

15 credits

Hate, Hope and Digital Misinformation

The module explores contemporary issues that affect the relationship between digital media and society in the global context. It focuses on digital media and dis/misinformation (for example debates around fake news), the relationship between misinformation and online extremes (such as online hate, conspiracy theories, or online radicalisation), and attempts to counter these phenomena (including fact-checking and the creation of digital counter-narratives). These developments are contextualized in relation to longstanding debates about the ways that power, inequality and the political economy of the mainstream media shape the availability and visibility of information. The module takes examples from around the world and applies relevant theories to their analysis.

15 credits

Contemporary Challenges: Refugees and Asylum

Contemporary Challenges explores a key contemporary challenge in depth and applies key concepts in Sociology (e.g. class, race, nationalism, democracy) in analysing it. The focus of the challenge will change on a 3-4 yearly basis.
In its first iteration, the module focuses on Brexit: ideas of class and 'the left behind', English nationalism, nostalgia for empire, the media, and some of the impacts of Brexit in relation to everyday life. In doing so the module will develop a deeper understanding of the reasons behind the vote for the UK to leave the EU, as well as some of its consequences.

15 credits

Digital Practices

This unit provides students with practical skills in digital media production, covering the following areas: creative media content; visual design; web design (including areas such as usability and user experience design, web accessibility, search engine optimisation). It introduces students to software and processes relating to these areas in a workshop environment, and students proceed to develop their skills through the production of portfolio work. It focuses on digital media in society by highlighting the importance of users, usage and use contexts of digital media products.

15 credits

Digital Health

This module looks at the social implications of digital technologies in health, considering what these mean for our experiences of health and illness as patients and as citizens, for the work of health care professionals, and for the provision of health care. The module will consider a range of contemporary areas such as self-tracking and gamifying health, telemedicine and care at a distance, health information on the net, electronic patient records, illness death and dying on the web, and health activism and online patient groups. Drawing across these, the module will consider questions about changing representations and cultures of health and illness, whether we can all be medical experts now, who has responsibility for health, how we relate to health care professionals, the commodification of health data and the relative benefits for state and industry.

15 credits

Advanced social media research

This module focuses on innovative techniques that move beyond the traditional distinction between quantitative and qualitative approaches in the analysis of social media data. Students will critically discuss and apply some of the most contemporary digital methods developments. These include new approaches to studying apps and social media platforms, drawing on analytical traditions from digital media, social studies of science and technology (STS), and sociology. Students will also develop their own independent research by applying skills learned in practical workshops to conduct an original study of social media platforms or apps.

15 credits

Sociology of Genders, Sexualities and the Bodies

Why are gender, sexuality and the body important areas for sociological study? How can these domains be seen to be political as well as personal? How have understanding around gender, sexuality and the body changed across time and cultures? How might experiences and practices of gender, sexuality and the body be impacted by intersectional factors such as race and ethnicity, ability and disability, faith, social class, age, and space and place? These are some of the key questions explored on this module, which will consider the diverse ways in which gender, sexuality and the body are understood and practiced at individual, collective and structural levels.

15 credits

Visual Methods for Social Scientists

The module explores different approaches to understanding social reality by collating, creating and analysing images. The course will cover several methods such as compositional analysis, content analysis, and discourse analysis. It will also cover the use of different media such as magazine images, video and photography in social research. Ethical and intellectual property issues will also be dealt with such as copyright, anonymity and consent during the research process. Including the visual as part of a mixed methodology in research will underpin much of the material. The students will be expected to take photographic images during the course.

15 credits

Information Governance and Ethics (distance learning)

The module explores a) the emergence of information and data as an economic resource b) the governance challenges and ethical issues arising from organisations' systematic capture, processing, and use of information and data for organisational goals, e.g. value, risk, accountability, ownership, privacy etc. c) governance, ethical, legal and other frameworks relevant to the capture, processing and use of information and data within organisational and networked contexts d) technologies and techniques used in the governing and governance of information and data. Case examples from a number of domains, e.g. business, government, health, law, and social media illustrate the topics investigated.

15 credits

How the World Gets Made

How do we produce and co-ordinate the most mundane and taken-for-granted aspects of the social world? How do we, for example, cross the road without bumping into one another, produce and understand directions of how to get somewhere, or 'just know' when someone is misunderstanding or lying about something? This module provides an in-depth, hands-on immersion in influential, radical interactionist approaches to the study of social order. We emphasise the improvised and locally produced nature of the social world, drawing on radical philosophical, conceptual and methodological frameworks for conducting studies. The approach's utility in a range of fields - including science studies, human-computer interaction, workplace studies, crime and deviance - will be considered. Structured seminars will introduce key thinkers, central themes, conceptual positions and methodological opportunities. Tutorial workshops will provide students with the support and guidance needed for them to undertake analysis of a segment of social interaction of their choice.

15 credits

Guided Module Choice - you can take a maximum of 15 credits from the following:

Managing Climate Change

This module aims to provide students with a strong understanding of the social and physical science of climate change with relevance to international development. This understanding is then applied to consider the challenge of living with climate change in the Global South. The module is taught through seminars and lectures. Lectures introduce and impart factual knowledge while seminars allow discussion and an emphasis on applying key concepts to practical situations. Together these structure students' learning, and provide an environment in which they can develop their skills in researching, presenting and debating arguments drawn from the wide ranging literature on climate change.

15 credits

Media, State and Society in China

This module explores the workings of the media in China and their treatment of social issues. You will develop critical reading strategies for media, academic, government and corporate sources, research skills and gain experience in writing shorter and longer explanations of these issues.
In the first half of the module, we will critically examine changes in media coverage on Chinese society (in Chinese and overseas print media, social media and documentary film). In the second half of the semester, we will explore a range of social topics, through a combination of academic studies and media sources.

15 credits

Media, Culture and Society in East Asia

This module introduces key ideas surrounding media and culture in the context of East Asian society. Via selected case studies we will explore issues such as power and control, propaganda, politics of memory, politics of representation, media production and consumption, globalisation, transnational cultural exchange, media and nationhood and the changing status of the creative industries in East Asia. This course will examine a variety of media products including film, TV, radio, digital archives, animation, memorials and museums and will engage with the media and culture of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the PRC respectively. 

15 credits

Before Facebook: Social Networks in History

In a world of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, social networks seem a distinctly modern phenomenon, but are they only a product of our digital age? This module explores historians' efforts to reconstruct social networks in diverse contexts, from the ancient to the modern world. Drawing upon techniques first developed by social scientists, and increasingly digital methods too, they have found networks of trade and business; religious groups and political exiles; family, friends and much more. This innovative work is revealing how far lives and communities cut across boundaries of time and space - with important consequences for historical debates and issues.

15 credits