Please note that the University and the Faculty of Arts have launched a new assessment policy effective as of 1 July 2021. This new policy particularly affects LATE SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENTS.

The Faculty policy in relation to late assessment submissions is as follows:

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – 10 marks out of 100 credit will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted seven days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests, etc.

To be very clear:

• Unless you have applied for special consideration and had your application approved, for each day your assignment is late, 10 marks will be deducted. For example, if you submit your assignment 7 days late, 70 marks will be deducted, which means you will fail that assignment.
• If your assignment is more than 7 days late (including weekends), you will get 0 for your assignment.

These are serious penalties that will substantially alter your final grade and even determine whether you pass or fail this unit. Please make every effort to submit your assignment by the due date.

If you find you cannot submit your assignment on time, please apply for Special Consideration through AskMQ. Make sure you read Macquarie University's policy regarding Special Consideration requests before you apply: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/special-consideration

CLASS DESCRIPTION: SEEING SOCIAL MEDIA

This is a class devoted to social media culture: the personal, social, political and economic ramifications of living in a time dominated by social media. As you might expect from our class title, we will spend a substantial amount of time thinking about life online in terms of networked images.

This can put us in contentious territory. If it is true that the internet is a trash fire, networked images provide a fair amount of its garbage, and most of its gasoline. Be they 'stupid' reaction GIFs, 'narcissistic' selfies, 'confusing' memes, 'serious' displays of evidence (as in photographed protests) or 'horrifying' displays of depravity (as in live-streamed executions), networked images tend to figure heavily into debates about what social media 'has done' to notions of identity, community, creativity, privacy, news, ethics, and pleasure around the world.

In this class, we will consider some of these debates, but we will also consider how the hyper-visibility of digital images contrasts with the opaqueness and transparency of platforms, apps, and technologies. This matters, because at the platform level, social media includes nearly every site or app we access each day. Everyone knows social networking services like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat "count" as social media. But we should also be thinking in terms of knowledge-building platforms like Wikipedia, shopping platforms like Amazon, travel platforms like TripAdvisor, streaming platforms like Spotify, Netflix , and Twitch, fitness platforms like FitBit, plagiarism detection platforms like TurnitIn, gaming platforms like XBox Live, baby monitoring platforms....the list goes on.

We should also be aware that even platforms that aren't explicitly social can be driven by technologies that create socially networked effects. We've probably all heard of algorithmic manipulation on social networking sites like Facebook with "personally designed news feeds," but the most notorious company deploying algorithmic "recipes" to sort, rank and target its users is actually Google. Companies like Uber that gather our geographical data are also key players in the tracing and tracking game. Even if you never go online at all, your phone is already designed to work like a drone, collecting and reporting your movement patterns back to the companies that built them (and sometimes to the governments where they are located.)

The class will take up these issues, framing them in terms of what can be seen, known, enforced, and resisted in social media culture. Throughout, we'll continue to return to the question: What are the best ways to learn, advocate, create, love and protect ourselves in social media culture, when both visibility and invisibility offer promise and threat?

WEEKLY SCHEDULE OF CLASSES 

• FIRST LECTURE (AVAILABLE IN VIDEO FORMAT):  WEEK 1
• FIRST TUTORIAL : WEEK 2

See full semester schedule here.

POLICIES

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

• Academic Appeals Policy
• Academic Integrity Policy
• Academic Progression Policy
• Assessment Policy
• Fitness to Practice Procedure
• Grade Appeal Policy
• Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public
• Special Consideration Policy

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au  

IMPORTANT!! LATE ASSESSMENT POLICY

Please note that the University and the Faculty of Arts have launched a new assessment policy effective as of 1 July 2021. This new policy particularly affects LATE SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENTS.

The Faculty policy in relation to late assessment submissions is as follows:

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – 10 marks out of 100 credit will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted seven days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests, etc.

To be very clear:

• Unless you have applied for special consideration and had your application approved, for each day your assignment is late, 10 marks will be deducted. For example, if you submit your assignment 7 days late, 70 marks will be deducted, which means you will fail that assignment.

• If your assignment is more than 7 days late (including weekends), you will get 0 for your assignment.

These are serious penalties that will substantially alter your final grade and even determine whether you pass or fail this unit. Please make every effort to submit your assignment by the due date.

If you find you cannot submit your assignment on time, please apply for Special Consideration through AskMQ. Make sure you read Macquarie University's policy regarding Special Consideration requests before you apply: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/special-consideration

WEEKLY SCHEDULE OF CLASSES 

• FIRST LECTURE (AVAILABLE IN VIDEO FORMAT):  WEEK 1
• FIRST TUTORIAL : WEEK 2

See full semester schedule here.

IMPORTANT!! LATE ASSESSMENT POLICY

Please note that the University and the Faculty of Arts have launched a new assessment policy effective as of 1 July 2021. This new policy particularly affects LATE SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENTS.

The Faculty policy in relation to late assessment submissions is as follows:

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – 10 marks out of 100 credit will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted seven days (incl. weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests, etc.

To be very clear:

• Unless you have applied for special consideration and had your application approved, for each day your assignment is late, 10 marks will be deducted. For example, if you submit your assignment 7 days late, 70 marks will be deducted, which means you will fail that assignment.

• If your assignment is more than 7 days late (including weekends), you will get 0 for your assignment.

These are serious penalties that will substantially alter your final grade and even determine whether you pass or fail this unit. Please make every effort to submit your assignment by the due date.

If you find you cannot submit your assignment on time, please apply for Special Consideration through AskMQ. Make sure you read Macquarie University's policy regarding Special Consideration requests before you apply: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/special-consideration