The following info about the Master’s program in “Creating Social Media” reached me recently, and I thought it might be of interest to readers. Note that the deadline for applying is quickly approaching!
What does social media look like in the future? What will you create? At Goldsmiths, University of London, we offer an MA/MSc in Creating Social Media that provides students with practical and critical skills to shape the future of social media. The MA/MSc is a collaborative theory/practice programme across the Centre for Cultural Studies and the Department of Computing.
Based on global examples, we explore the technological and intellectual questions that have risen to prominence with the social web. We critique existing approaches and tools, and plan, develop, hack and implement new applications and campaigns. We not only analyse: we create.
New social media platforms, at their best, develop new online forms of connecting, relating, sharing and organising. Effective and innovative social media creation, therefore, involves deep theoretical and practical knowledge of both software development and social processes. Participants in the MA/MSc will become proficient in
– Computing skills in software development for new social media platforms, mashups, apps, and tools.
– This includes both coding and data skills, and a hacker approach
– Students with non technical background are brought up to speed with a specially developed bootcamp– Theories of social processes and methods to research them.
– Adapting social media to a variety of technological contexts and to the needs of specific communities.
– Creating social media interventions that address social processes in new ways.– Surfacing the assumptions and limitations embedded in software.
– Critically assessing contemporary discourses about social media and change.
– Building software tools that enable different forms of social practice, and launching them successfully.The course draws together students from all around the globe, and from a wide spectrum, some with a technical background, and others whose main focus has been communications, culture, society or politics. We accept applicants until August 31 – but best apply as soon as possible.
Start: Sep 2012 (for those without technical background) or Oct 2012 (with)
Apply by: August 30 2012 latest
Duration: 1 Year full-time or 2 years part-time
Final Degree: MA or MSc (depends on focus of the thesis)
Website: http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-creating-social-media/
Contact: g.bachmann@gold.ac.uk
