HMN 306—Digital Humanities Intro Workshop: Social Media Analysis

HMN 306 teaches students how to critique and analyze social media by using methods for collecting, analyzing, and applying social network data. Special emphasis will be placed on the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow for large-scale collection and processing of messages and associated metadata about the flow of communication, including likes, follows, shares, etc., as well as contextual and demographics information such as location and public user data. Students will be asked to consider the social, cultural, and political ramifications of given social media policies, technologies, and phenomenon, such as the dynamics of “viral” content or the opportunities and dangers associated with the emergence of “bots” powered by machine learning. Basic network analysis tools and techniques will be used to visualize such dynamics and make large datasets more accessible to critical analysis. This workshop will require preparatory reading, in-class participation, independent research, and the submission of a workshop assignment and reflection as part of each student’s submitted final digital portfolio. Open lab hours following the workshops will offer students additional support in completing their assignments, reflections, and portfolios. HMN 30X workshops are designed as basic or introductory and require no previous skills or knowledge. Students must have passed HMN 201 with a grade of C or higher prior to enrolling in this course.