Social Media
Social Media:
An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Project
The Project
The advent of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin has
revolutionised the way people interact with each other in the 21st century
by placing at our fingertips the capacity to reach instantly a global network
of loved ones and strangers with the click of a button. These platforms help
individuals separated by distance to sustain family ties, the bonds of
friendship and romantic relationships. They enable businesses to reach a wider
market of consumers at the same time they offer a vehicle for mobilising grass
roots activism and support for philanthropic causes. They offer a means of
circulating artistic work, news and opinions outside of mainstream channels.
While social media enhance our ability to share information and engage in
personal expression, they have also raised a host of critical issues such as
the dynamics of online communication and digital citizenship, regulatory approaches,
(in)appropriate usage of platforms, technological development, the
opportunities and challenges of virtual commerce and the general relationship
between online and offline social environments.
The Issues
The project offers a series of
conferences, workshops, seminars, publications and special events aimed at
generating inclusive interdisciplinary dialogue that explores the ways in which
social media:
- influences the way we engage and communicate with each other
- informs the ways in which we experience and understand emotions
- affects our relationship with technology
- impacts our relationship with institutional power (e.g. media, government, corporate interests)
- (dis)empowers us as consumers and producers
- catalogues and organises information
The project also seeks to promote:
- Understanding of the relationship between social media, the Internet environment and offline interaction
- Interdisciplinarity as best practice for using social media in entertainment, commerce, activism and community development, etc.
- Opportunities and challenges for regulating social media
- Strategies for dealing with limitations on the reach of social media
- Innovation in technologies and metrics of social media
- Reciprocal relationship between social media and education
Project Map and Outcomes
The project’s structure allows for
in-depth explorations of individual platforms and the relationships with each
other as well as more focused workshops and seminars, including events that
deal with practical application of social media’s capabilities.
