Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC3130: Digital Society

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

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:

The role of information technology, networks, data and algorithms in society
Key issues from interdisciplinary literature such as Internet studies, software studies, data studies, algorithm studies, platform studies, information infrastructures and digital sociology.
For example, key issues might include: the politics of social media, surveillance, scoring, rankings, classifications, infrastructures, standards, protocols, affordances, profiling, prediction, analytics search, retrieval, blackboxes, crowdsourcing and the gig, sharing and digital economies
Challenges and opportunities for digital social science and digital sociology scholarship
Analysis of real-world cases and issues in the light of key theoretical frameworks
Introduction to systems design problems and techniques

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

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128	0

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

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning and teaching activity	11	11 x 1 hour weekly lectures
Scheduled learning and teaching activity	11	11 x 1 hour weekly seminars
Guided independent study	70	Module reading
Guided independent study	58	Research and writing for group report and individual essay

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