The module has five main goals:

* To provide students with an appreciation of the breadth and depth of interaction between digital media and society at large.

* To provide students with an appreciation of the scientific, technical and organisational underpinnings of contemporary digital media.

* To engage students in exploring the social and cultural policy implications of digital media.

*To explore the benefits provided and risks posed by each new form of digital media.

* To explore the deeply linked connections between digital media and society, social change and individual experience.

(LO1) Students will acquire advanced knowledge and understanding of academic theory and debates relating to the relationship between digital media and society
.

(LO2) Students will acquire advanced knowledge and understanding of the technical, organisational and policy aspects of digital media use.

(LO3) Students will be able to critically analyse the academic and policy research approaches to digital media use.

(LO4) Students will be able to critically and empirically analyse and evaluate the social impacts of digital media use through a focus on selected contemporary issues.

(S1) Digital scholarship participating in emerging academic, professional and research practices that depend on digital systems.

(S2) Problem solving critical thinking and creativity in analysing facts and situations and applying creative thinking to develop appropriate conclusion or solutions.

(S3) Media literacy online critically reading and creatively producing academic and professional communications in a range of media.

(S4) Communication, listening and questioning respecting others, contributing to discussions, influencing, presentations.

(S5) Research and ansalytical planning and delivery, formulating questions, selecting literature, using primary/secondary/diverse sources, collecting & using data, applying approprite research methods, applying ethics.

The topic-focused lectures will follow a format in which a social issue is introduced.  The lecture will then explore this issue through a number of examples based in empirical studies. In the lecture details of the scientific, technical and organisational underpinnings of one or more relevant technologies will be presented.  The goal of each lecture is to ensure that students will leave with an understanding of the social implications and relevant technical workings of each technology. By linking content in this way it is hoped that the lectures will prove of relevance to a broad audience across a range ofacademic backgrounds and interests. The lectures are focused on seven concrete areas that we all experience day-to-day in the UK:

* living in a ‘networked’ world

* interpersonal communication

* work

* government

* social change

* inequality

* culture and identity.

Teaching Method 1 - Seminar
Description: The 2-hour seminar will be used flexibly, to provide opportunity for whole-class discussion, small group activity and some lecture input, depending on the nature of the topic and on the activities necessary to do justice to it. These will be run using a combination of online and face-to-face teaching.

Attendance Recorded: Yes
Unscheduled Directed Student Hours (time spent away from the timetabled sessions but directed by the teaching staff): 138