Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I teach graduate and undergraduate classes on social movements, politics, democracy and media and attending this Institute of Social Action will only help me to teach these courses with much more rigor and more adept in teaching applied skills.
Course Description:
Is social media encouraging democracy or destroying it? Have the algorithmic echo chambers increased polarization or cultivated community among like-minded people? We explore these and other urgent questions of our times and understand the complicated relationship between social media and political participation. By examining recent examples of political expressions like memes, hashtags and reels, we investigate both the promises and perils of platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok in conjuring our public discourse and civic engagement. While we investigate the role of social media in fomenting and spreading misinformation, disinformation, fake news and real-world violence, we also explore how it has been used as an empowering space to organize, protest and facilitate democracy. Wary of categorizing social media in simplistic terms of good or bad, we focus on the complexities, nuances and sophistication of social media in shaping our digital spheres.
Taught By:
Keya Saxena
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
Department of Communication
University of South Alabama
Read profile here.