Kursinformation

The Course "Social Media, Transnational Dynamics, and Cultural Transfers" examines social media and its role in enabling and facilitating transnational protests, multiplying cultural transfers, and interactions among participants and groups. It introduces different disciplinary approaches to social media, transnational movements, and cultural transfers, providing a conceptual framework and analytical tools for dealing with the transnational protest dynamics from the global studies perspective. The course is envisioned as a research seminar where students conduct research on the transnational protest on social media of their own choice during the semester, creating a joint wiki on moodle.

The course is divided into two parts: the first 6-sessions-long part introduces (i) different theoretical approaches and concepts which would be used for the analysis of cases, from social media and social movements to cultural transfers; and (ii) specific methodological challenges in the analysis of social media. We critically explore attempts to define social media as a facilitator of participatory culture, connective action, filter bubbles, or affective communities, to name some of them. In the following three sessions, we introduce methodological challenges in the analysis of social media, addressing some of the crucial aspects of social media in protest mobilization research: (i) how to approach social media as a source or research field; (ii) the differences and similarities among digital platforms and genres; (iii) challenges to status quo and stability, by specific communicative strategies, including emotionality, humor, fake news, and visual material.

The second part of the course is dedicated to case studies students are working on. The main focus of each study is on the transnational protests, examining connections and following the traveling of content within and across particular protests (like memes) or the spread of the protests across continents and into on-site demonstrations (like #BLM, MeTwo of FfF).

The course builds on the pedagogy of the research-based seminar, exploiting students' pre-existing knowledge and daily practice in the use of social media as a motivation to engage in the case study research. We pre-selected potential research topics from which students can choose and work - either individually or in groups - exploring how the protest was created, its reach, content, and transnational connections. Benefiting from the transnational composition of the Global Studies classroom, we hope to enable fruitful exchanges and cooperation among students, working together during the course on the case studies of their choice.