Research Design and Empirical Methods - Seminar C: Social media and digital culture: Research design and methods

Course content

The course trains the students' ability to plan, design and implement research on the use of social media for cultural production, dissemination and reception. The module provides an overview of the social media’ role in the promotion of popular culture, entertainment and the arts and distinguishes specific features and affordances of social media use in the context of digital culture or ‘cyber-culture’. The specialization focuses on communication on diverse social media platforms and for different purposes (communication from and within organizations, branding, critical cultural journalism, user generated content, lifestyle, fan and popular culture, etc.). It takes into account different ways to approach social media as cultural space and as cultural flow with a particular emphasis on transcultural and transnational developments, the emergence of hybrid and fluid cultures and their impact on individual users, communities and identities. A wide range of methods will be applied to this field, building mainly on case study approaches with examples from cultural production and organizational studies, quantitative and qualitative content analysis including texts and visuals, audience, user and reception studies and various measurements of media effects and impact.

Education

Master in Film and Media Studies, 2019-curriculum

Learning outcome

At the examination, the student is able to demonstrate:

 

Knowledge and understanding of:

  • the application of qualitative and quantitative empirical research methods to answer a given research question.
  • the theoretical bases underpinning different qualitative and quantitative methods, their respective explanatory efficacy, and how they are embedded in different research traditions.
  • mixed-method strategies, including the use of digital IT tools, their complex interaction, and how they may be applied to different film and media research questions.

 

Skills to:

  • formulate a research question and develop a complex, theoretical research design that necessitates the application of several empirical methods.
  • use different tools to collect and analyse different types and amounts of data and reflect critically on the tools used and the results achieved.
  • present a research design and argue for the selected methods in both written and spoken forms.

 

Competencies to:

  • select and combine the right methodological and theoretical tools to address a research question.
  • assess the chosen strategy and the applicability and validity of the research in relation to specific functions and contexts.

plan, conduct and present the results of empirical research based on film and media theory and methodology.

 

Lectures, seminars, in-class participation, presentations, group work, home assignments. In the first half of the semester, the course covers the fundamental stages in research designs. Here, lecturers and seminars supplement each other. In the second half of the semester, the teaching is primarily done as seminars, where students work on their own research projects in groups.

The joint seminars rely on a textbook on research designs and empirical methods. The seminar tracks use academic texts within the particular field that the seminar focuses on. Teaching and readings are predominantly in English.

The course presupposes basic knowledge of qualitative and quantitative methods in film- and media research. If a student is not familiar with the methods beforehand, it is expected that the student acquires
knowledge of these methods on their own during the semester.

Oral
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)
ECTS
15 ECTS
Type of assessment
Other
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Criteria for exam assessment

Links to Curriculums:

Master in Film and Media Studies, 2019-curriculum:

https:/​/​hum.ku.dk/​uddannelser/​aktuelle_studieordninger/​film_medievidenskab/​

 

Exams are conducted in English or Danish.

 

  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 24
  • Preparation
  • 352,5
  • Seminar
  • 33
  • English
  • 409,5