• Jobin Anna

• Jobin Anna

This seminar provides an introduction to a range of methodological skills required to successfully engage with the Digital Society.

Below is a tentative course plan, subject to change.

Week 1: Introduction: what are methods?

Week 2: Paradigms & Epistemologies
“Paradigm debate”, Sociotechnicity

Week 3: Questions, Methods, Data
Induction, Deduction, Research Design

Week 4: Digital Research in Context
Resources, Tools, Journals, Metrics

Week 5: Methods I
(Online) Surveys, Interviews, Ethnography

Week 6: Methods II
“Digital methods”, Born Digital Data

Week 7: Methods III
Big data research, Social Network Analysis

Week 8: Research Ethics
Bioethics, Experiments, Internet Research Ethics

Week 9: Individual advancement

Week 10: Intermediate report presentations

Week 11: Researching Digital Artifacts and Algorithms
Affordances, Machine Bias, Software Studies etc

Week 12: Researching Digital Platforms and Infrastructures
Political Economy, Platform studies, Maintenance etc.

Week 13: Researching Digital Practices and Identity
Communities, Visibility, Vulnerabilities

Week 14: Project presentations
Students present their individual projects, designing a research projet with a coherent methodology on a digital topic of their choice.

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Important note: The planning above is for information purposes only and may be subject to change. Please refer to the Moodle for the most recent version of the syllabus and for specific assignment details and due dates.

The course aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the methodologies available for researching and analyzing the digital society and a deeper understanding of the link between research question and methodology. The seminar emphasizes the importance of the sociotechnical aspects of digital society, including digital practices, identities, artifacts, platforms, and infrastructures. The students will apply their learned skills by designing and presenting a research project on a digital topic of their choice.

Grading: Participation (20%), Assignments (20%), Final paper and presentation (60%)

The reference list for this class is available on Moodle after each class.