ZUR356 Social media - theory and practice

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2014
Extent and Intensity
1/1. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Štěpán Neubauer (lecturer)
Mgr. Pavol Fabuš (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Jiří Pavelka, CSc.
Department of Media Studies and Journalism – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Bc. Pavlína Brabcová
Supplier department: Department of Media Studies and Journalism – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
each even Tuesday 13:30–16:45 Studio 527
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 25 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The course deals with socio-cultural aspects of social media, practical illustrations and work with particular internet services. After the theoretical part of the course, students will be able to provide an explanation of networks and networking effects, the history of predecessors of social media, the issues of elite (one-to-many) versus amateur (many-to-many) production, the theory of the “long tail”, and the criticism of social media and their artistic reflection. After the second part of the course, students will be able to characterize in more detail selected types of amateur production (blogs and civil journalism), as well as the transformation of the concepts of intellectual property and privacy in the era of social media. In the third part, students will learn to analyze the specific examples of services which tend to be labelled as the web 2.0 (for example del.icio.us or last.fm). Next to it, they will be able to discuss the possibilities to create virtual identities and communities; to assess the importance of search engines, and to use projects in the academic and personal everydayness.
Syllabus
  • Bloc 1: explanation of networks and networking effects, the history of predecessors of social media, the issues of elite (one-to-many) versus amateur (many-to-many) production, the theory of the “long tail”, and the criticism of social media and their artistic reflection
  • Bloc 2: selected types of amateur production (blogs and civil journalism), the transformation of the concepts of intellectual property and privacy in the era of social media
  • Bloc 3: specific examples of services which tend to be labelled as the web 2.0 (for example del.icio.us or last.fm); discussion about the possibilities to create virtual identities and communities, the importance of search engines, and samples of practical use of projects in the academic and personal everydayness; viral marketing and new business models
Literature
  • Lessig, Lawrence: Free Culture. New York: Penguin Press, 2004
  • Barabási, Albert-László: V pavučině sítí. Praha: Paseka, 2005.
  • Benkler, Yochai: The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 2006.
  • Scholz, T. (2005) The Participatory Challenge. In: Krysa, J. ed. Curating Immateriality. DATA browser 3. New York, Autonomedia. p.
  • Zbiejczuk, Adam: Web 2.0 - charakteristiky a služby. 2007
  • Lanier, Jaron: Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism. Edge.org, 2006
  • Crosbie, Vin. What is 'New Media'? 2006
  • Anderson, Chris: The Long Tail. Wired 10/04.
  • Gillmor, Dan: We the Media. 2004
Teaching methods
The course is taught as a combination of lectures (theoretical background) and seminars (practical exercises). Great emphasis is put on active participation of students.
Assessment methods
Conditions for awarding the credit: participating in all the three blocs, participating in the interactive outputs to be specified during the semester (registering with selected services and their use), and submitting the final written assignment.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2019.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2014, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2014/ZUR356