After completing this course, the student:
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has an understanding of the relevant theoretical perspectives in the field of social media and governance from a variety of disciplines;
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has insight into the complexity of relationships between social media, governance, organizations and professionalism;
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has developed skills in analyzing and evaluating recent important issues related to social media;
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is able to apply various methods to study contemporary questions about the role of social media.
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Over the last years, social media such as twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn have gained prominence. They are used by different groups in society, with different purposes. In this course, we will relate social media to the public sphere, public organizations and public professionals. In other words, we will use three perspectives on social media: macro, meso and micro perspective.
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Social media can have an impact on the way in which governments function and stimulate democratization of societies, as could be witnessed in Ukraine or in the Arab Spring. Yet, there is still a lot of discussion whether social media are really the cause of these processes and moreover, whether these are structural or temporal changes.
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Public organizations use social media for internal communication and for communication with citizens. Which (strategic) choices do they make in their use of social media, and what does this mean for their image and reputation among the public? Moreover, how do social media affect the relationship between these organizations and citizens?
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Within organizations, ranging from multinational companies to political parties, individuals use social media. How do they present themselves, for which purposes, and which is the fit with organizational purposes?
Social media will be discussed from various theoretical approaches and we will deal with topics such as collective action, identity, participation and privacy. Insights from theory will be combined with practical applications, among others through guest lectures by practitioners.
This course requires a particularly active participation and a willingness to engage with various forms of social media. You will work on a specific research theme resulting in a paper to be presented during a seminar at the end of the course. All contributions will be peer reviewed by your fellow students.
After completion of this course, you will have learned to use blogs, tweets and social network sites productively and have acquired knowledge of how these forms of social media may affect governance practices.
Number of participants
25 students
Places will be allocated in order of subscription. If less than 10 students subscribe, the course may not be made available.
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