Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter represent a new class of communication platforms that have become quickly interwoven into the everyday lives of millions of people around the world. In this course we will draw on competing communication perspectives to explore the reasons behind the widespread popularity of these platforms. In doing so we will consider the role of individual choice, social influence, technological influence, and how these three perspectives can be combined. We will further explore the implications of social media for personal relationships, youth culture, organizations, social research, and personal privacy.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Apply multiple communication perspectives to make sense of social media adoption and use, through class discussion, the theory paper and the final projects.
• Understand the various methodological approaches that can be used to study social media by applying class discussion to reading material.
• Discuss social media intelligently using appropriate language and terminology derived from scholarly papers and class discussion.
• Understand the implications of social media for a variety of social issues through the course readings and class discussion.
• Think abstractly about the role of social media in personal and organizational contexts during class discussion and while writing the theory paper and final project.