COM 5350 - Social Media Platforms and New Media Industries

This course examines new information and media industries in the digital age. Media industries have traditionally consisted of film studios, TV stations, record labels, and newspaper publishers, but now also includes “big tech,” social media, and streaming media companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Apple, Spotify, and Netflix. These companies often simultaneously act as producers, distributors, and exhibitors of their own content; platforms where other companies and organizations predominantly operate and try to create “spreadable media” to reach citizens and consumers; advertising platforms and data collectors; and spaces where users themselves may become marketers and self-promoters. We will consider the way long-standing media industry practices have expanded include digital media platforms and how those platforms have disrupted long-standing media industry practices. Ultimately, we will consider these new media industries in relation to the communities of people who use these platforms, the ever-changing technological context, as well as the politics, policies, and economics that undergird their business practices.