We are sharing more media from more sources with more people, more often and more quickly than ever before. Social media extends and enhances our ability to engage in dynamic, ongoing conversations and actively produce, as well as consume, content in every imaginable form. Social media is the new operating system for information. Information wants to be social. It wants to be shared, discussed, contested and corrected. The rise of social media has expanded our ability to influence what is published, changed the way we organise, challenged institutional control of information and transformed how companies reach customers. Citizens are no longer simply consumers of commercial messaging and formal news, but are creators, shapers, participants and sometimes consumers. This change has profound organizations for all institutions interested in communicating and influencing the public and who have been rapidly challenged to give up message control.

This course combines immersion in social media tools with a theoretical foundation to equip students with the knowledge and practical skills they need to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the evolving digital media ecosystem. The course simulates an interdisciplinary think tank environment. Students will identify research questions, develop applied projects and examine the impact of social media and social networking technologies on various aspects of society, business, culture, communication, web experience, and interface design.

There will be significant teamwork where business and journalism students collaborate on an applied social media project. There will be opportunity to learn from each other, and for individual students to pursue more advanced learning in specific areas of interest, such as sourcing and crafting stories using social media tools, or commercial monitoring and publishing tools like Hootsuite Pro.

Course Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course, students will be expected to have:

• Acquired an understanding of how digital technologies and media are reshaping political, business, social and cultural norms and practices
• Be familiar with major concepts and theory about networked digital media
• Be proficient with the best application of social media tools and practices in stakeholder communication, be it in marketing, business, NGO or journalism
• Obtained experience in, and gained an understanding of, how to conduct a social media project from inception to completion
• Be competent in the use of tools to assess and evaluate the performance of a social media initiative
• Recognized the changes effected by social media in major aspects of Canada’s society, economy and culture, along with future implications and possibilities

For Commerce students this course builds on COMM464 eMarketing, and delves deeper into the tools and mechanics of social media, in the broader context of the journalist’s perspective on information reporting, effective communication and sharing.

For Journalism students this course builds on JRNL 515C iJournalism by further developing their ability to harness the potential of social media to find ideas and sources, track trends, connect with audiences and enhance their professional profile.