Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ANT3095: Social Media, Disinformation, and Authoritarianism

This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

  • Digital ethnography as methodology
  • The digital self
  • Anonymity and harassment
  • Algorithms as digital infrastructure
  • Civil unrest and populism
  • Online conspiracy theories and “cults”
  • Technology and authoritarianism

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
221280

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Schedule Learning and Teaching Activity22 Weekly 2-hour lectures/seminars or 1 hour lecture + 1 hour seminar.
Guided Independent Study40Weekly reading for seminars
Guided Independent Study60Essay writing and research
Guided Independent Study28Presentation of one example of disinformation on a social media platform

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

  • ELE – College to provide hyperlink to appropriate pages

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Basic reading:

 

Sarah Pink et al, Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practice. Sage, 2016.

 

Larissa Hjorth et al, The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography. Routledge, 2017.

 

James Hoggan, I’m Right and You’re an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up. New Society Publishers, 2016.

 

Mike Rothschild, The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and a Conspiracy Theory of Everything. Hachette, 2021.