[Air-L] A new e-learning course – Why We Post - The Anthropology of Social Media

[Shriram Venkatraman]

*A new e-learning course – Why We Post - The Anthropology of Social Media*


A new MOOC – (free e-learning course), called Why We Post - The
Anthropology of Social Media is now available for registration. The course
will start on 29th February 2016.


The course is available in eight languages. English version is on the
FutureLearn platform, (a branch of the Open University) at
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/anthropology-social-media/1


Registration for the Chinese, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil
and Turkish versions at
https://extendstore.ucl.ac.uk/catalog?pagename=why-we-post


These versions are not time bound and can be followed at any time and
duration from Feb 29th 2016.


This five week course is taught by the nine anthropologists whose
ethnographic research it is based on.


*Week One*: What is social media - Polymedia and Scalable Sociality. The
focus upon content rather than platforms. The 9 fieldsites. The practical
uses of this research. Main fieldsite – village England


*Week Two* – The shift to visual images in communication. Memes as the
moral police of the internet. The significance for illiteracy. The
diversity of the selfie. Main fieldsites -  south Italy, Trinidad.


*Week Three* – The impact on politics and gender. Why public social media
is more conservative than offline life. The transformation of gender
relations in Hindu and Muslim societies. Main fieldsites - south India and
southeast Turkey


*Week Four* –What we learn from The Chinese platforms. The impact of social
media more generally on privacy, on education and on commerce. Main
fieldsites – Industrial China, Rural China


*Week Five* – The relation between online equality and offline inequality.
When social media may not express identity or individuality. Seeing the
normative. How the world changed social media. Main fieldsites – northeast
Brazil and north Chile.



Thanks,
Shriram Venkatraman

*http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-social-media
<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-social-media>*