SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIETY - 2025/6

Module Overview

This module introduces students to the origins of social media, placed in its context in the history of the internet. Students will focus on the forms, functions, role and use of social media in contemporary society. Students will explore internet-mediated communication and social media platforms, and gain the critical and analytical skills needed to understand their social, political and economic implications. Students will be introduced to a variety of academic approaches to the internet and social media.

Centring both employability and the further development of digital capabilities, students will be introduced to a range of online careers, and create a Learning Journal as part of their assessment.

Module provider

Sociology

Module Leader

GRIFFITHS David (Sociology)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

N/A

Module content

Indicative themes which may be amended for each year of study include:
- The history of the internet and social media
- Research: Qualitative & Quantitative
- Identity Online
- News & Politics
- Politics and Activism
- Global Online Communities
- Celebrities & Social Media Fan Cultures
- Influencer Culture & Microcelebrities
- Health Online
- Social Media Careers
- Advertising and Public Relations
- Mediated intimacies

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

N/A

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy has been designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate that they have met the learning outcomes associated with this module.



There is one summative assessment for this module and a formative assessment.



The summative assessment is a learning journal. Students will be supported in keeping a learning journal throughout the module. This will be set up on SurreyLearn in such a way that it is private to the student, but visible for the module leader. The learning journal will be a dated structured entry related to each week¿s content, encouraging students to summarise the main points from the in-person class, reflect on their own experience, and note down any thoughts and questions that they might build on following the class. This will allow students to come to class prepared for activities such as group work and discussions. At the end of the module, students will choose a selection of these entries, and submit these alongside a reflexive critical commentary on their learning across the module.



Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:



Learning Journal, 100% (addresses learning outcomes 1 to 5)





Formative assessment

Students are strongly encouraged to submit a selection of journal entries and a plan on a date specified during the module. Following this, students will receive one-on-one and group feedback on their plans for the summative assessment.



Feedback:

Students will take part in group tasks in class throughout the module, during which they will receive feedback. Detailed guidance on how to complete the summative assessment is given in class and on SurreyLearn. The weekly seminars will include peer-to-peer learning, but also engagement with the module leader for multiple opportunities for feedback. Students will be encouraged to share their learning journal periodically for informal feedback.

Module aims

• Provide students with an understanding of the internet and social media as social phenomena
• Develop social sciences research skills that enable students to critically analyse social media
• Enable students to critically understand, discuss and evaluate contemporary debates about the role of the internet and social media in society
• Provide students with contemporary, global case studies to explain social media theories and concepts
• Demonstrate social media career pathways to students
• Facilitate students¿ reflexive and developmental writing, in the pursuit of active learning

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:
Develop student¿s knowledge, skills and capabilities around social media and its socio-cultural implications, employability skills and critical thinking. This is achieved through interactive sessions that include lectures, seminars, and individual and group activities.
Key concepts, theories and social media research and management approaches in the module will be outlined in each lecture, one building on the next. Interactive sessions will introduce students to key social media theories and case studies from diverse cultural contexts. Reading, research skills, individual and group tasks will be set to enhance student understanding and facilitate their own analysis skills around the socio-cultural impact of social media. Social media management plan tasks will contribute to their resourcefulness and employability.
The module is also addressing career pathways in social media to enhance student employability skills and awareness, including designing their own social media campaign and networking with social media professionals.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: SOC2109

Other information

The School of Sociology is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas: Employability Students will develop transferable skills such as analysis, critical thinking, and research and writing skills. The summative assessment will develop students¿ note-taking, summarizing and communication skills, as well as encourage them to think of their learning as a process of continuous development. These are skills pertinent to a huge range of jobs in many industries. Digital Capabilities Students will engage with a range of digital tools over the course of the module. Finding and employing academic articles will be supported through platforms such as SurreyLearn, Surrey Search and Google Scholar. The assessment will require students to use the Learning Journal space on the discussion board on SurreyLearn. More broadly, the module equips students to think critically about the digital itself, particularly the political economy of the internet. Global and Cultural Capabilities The critical skills that students develop on this module will enable them to think deeply about global digital divides and the ways that the internet, despite some initial optimism, often replicates global systems of inequality. Sustainability Similarly, the sustainability of politics and activism through the internet is a big topic for this module. The internet itself can sustain forms of relation and sociability that are not possible without it. Students will be, however, encouraged to think critically about sustaining politics and the social via online platforms owned by big corporations. Resourcefulness and Resilience Developing a learning journal over the course of a whole module offers a unique opportunity to build confidence, and the capacity for resourcefulness and resilience. The module and the assessment is structured to give lots of support for this approach, but also to give space (via the assessment and workshop activities) for students to grow in confidence over the first semester of their second year at university.

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.