HFIMK9501 – Creative methods for making sense of multimodal social media
Course description
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
More than half of the global population uses social media. In many areas of the world social media is used by over 80% of the population. It is increasingly likely that to answer your research questions you need to also inquire into social media content or people’s social media practices - explore what they do on, in and with social media and what else they do, when they are scrolling, posting, commenting, lurking, sharing or liking. This course focuses on the methodological implications and affordances of social media, in particular on what the ubiquitous visuality and the inherent multimodality of socially mediated communication implies for the ways in which we conceive of, generate, organize and interpret materials and data based on which we answer our research questions.
The course focuses on methods for analyzing people’s multimodal social media practices with a particular focus on visual social media (e.g. the creation, curation, interaction and consumption of selfies, social media snapshots, memes, gifs, emoji, reels, lives, short video on apps and platforms like Instagram, TikTok, BeReal, Snapchat etc.).
The subject is rooted in the disciplines of internet research, social media studies, media studies and visual culture studies and approaches research with an ethnographic sensibility. It centers the post as a basic unit of meaning making, and hence also of analysis on social media.
We work with concepts and terms such as platforms, practices, norms, affordances, situatedness, multimodality, intertextuality, polysemy, meaning making, etc.
Learning outcome
When you have passed the course, you will:
Knowledge
- Know what contextual social media analysis is and how to conduct it.
- Have a functional understanding of various practices, tactics, and tools for analyzing multimodal social media content.
- Have in-depth knowledge of central theories and core concepts within the research field of visual social media studies.
- Have good insight into conceptualizing social media affordances and analyzing social media platforms and appspaces.
- Be able to contribute to the development of new knowledge by connecting the theoretical challenges in the field to your own research.
Skills
- Be able to present and explain key conceptual frameworks in the study of visual/multimodal social media.
- Be able to use theories and concepts from visual culture studies and media studies to make sense of social media visuality and digital visual practices.
- Be able to discuss what the multimodality of socially mediated communication implies for the conduct of your own research.
- Be able to devise a fruitful research agenda to make sense of multimodal content and practices online.
- Be able to conduct contextual social media analysis.
- Have some ability to use creative techniques and methods to enact contextual social media analysis.
- Have some ability to assess and account for the ethical implications of visual social media research.
- Be able to formulate a research question within the field of visual social media studies that is relevant to your Ph.D. project.
General competencies
- Be able to articulate the role, relevance, and implications of non-verbal communication in your own research topic.
- Be able to ask well-grounded academic questions and identify new relevant issues about visual/multimodal communication, visual cultures, visual/multimodal practices on social media and their relations to issues of identity, power, norms etc.
- Be able to reflect critically and ethically on various practices for researching visual social media.
Be able to think creatively about the process of research and incorporate "born digital" practices into your own research agenda.
Admission to the course
This course is open for students admitted to PhD programs at the University of Oslo or other Norwegian institutions. Interested participants should provide the following documents:
-
a short description of the doctoral project (max 1 page, ca 400 words), including information on work done so far
-
a motivation letter explaining how this course is relevant for their doctoral research
-
for students from other institutions than UiO: an admission confirmation from their host institution
Documentation should be sent to the course teacher (professor Katrin Tiidenberg) no later than September 7, 2023.
Overlapping courses
- 3 credits overlap with MEVIT4705 – Creative methods for making sense of multimodal social media (discontinued).
Teaching
The teaching consists of four workshops, each lasting about four hours. It is anticipated that everyone will show up prepared for these gatherings.
The workshops will consist of presentations from the instructor, discussion of the ideas and concepts, hands on exercises in-class, discussion and reflection of the hands-on exercises and planning and design of independent research. Everyone is also expected to develop individual projects and work independently before and after the week of workshops.
Attendance is expected at all workshops: you are part of a learning community, and the point is to learn from each other, be inspired, pushed further in our thinking, and experiment with various conceptual and practical methods and techniques to think about and with social media. Participants are expected to participate actively in class discussions and hands-on exercises.
The course is offered at two levels jointly, in this case, both at Ph.D. and master’s levels. There will be both master's students and Ph.D. candidates at the workshops.
Obligatory activities:
To be allowed to take the exam in this course, your topic and research questions must be approved. You have to submit the results of your in-class hands on exercises (Moodboards, Situational and Relational Maps etc).
Syllabus:
We will set up a proposal for a syllabus of 500 pages. These will be academic books or articles. Some non-academic texts or other types of material may be added to the syllabus. In consultation with the course teacher, students may choose all or parts of this syllabus or build their syllabus list based on what is most relevant for the sample analysis.
Examination
The exam consists of a portfolio submission.
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.
Resit an examination
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.