Decoding Social Media is a pioneering course that partners students from the UBC Sauder School of Business and the Graduate School of Journalism to research and develop strategic social media plans for media outlets like the Vancouver Sun, The Walrus and CBC On the Coast.

One of the groups from 2013’s course received an Excellence in New Communication Award from the Society for New Communication Research, a global non-profit research and education foundation and think tank. The awards honour excellence in new communications, digital, mobile, social media and information and communications technology developments.

The students took the Social Media Marketing award in the academic category for a campaign created for Vancouver Magazine as part of the course. The social media project was also a finalist in the 2013 Canadian Online Publishing Award (COPA) for Best Use of Social Media.

We’ll be using the blog to post readings, course announcements and details of assignments, as well as posting slides from in-class presentations.