DSOC 22A11 - Digital Media and Data in Society

How do we make sense of online misinformation, digital surveillance, and the growing influence of AI in everyday life? This course uses a sociological lens to examine the power dynamics shaping our digitized and mediated world. We will explore both top-down forces, including platforms, governments, and corporate actors, and bottom-up practices such as social movements and underground media.

The class situates digital data within broader social structures to understand its possibilities and limitations, especially in terms of interpretation and generalizability. Students will analyze how institutions, identities, inequalities, and ideological frameworks influence the creation, circulation, and visibility of digital content. Topics include online hostility, content moderation, algorithmic bias, artificial intelligence, and the shifting relationships between creators, audiences, and platforms.

We will also examine how public and private institutions shape digital systems, from tech companies that develop algorithms to state actors seeking to regulate information flows. Political parties, campaigns, and movements play a key role in shaping digital narratives, and we will investigate how they produce and distribute data across diverse media environments.

Throughout the course, students will engage with real-world cases to connect sociological theory with current debates about digital media and data. A central goal is to develop a critical understanding of where digital data comes from, what it can and cannot show us, and how it reflects broader struggles over power, identity, and public life.

At the end of the course, the student is expected to : 1°) Develop the ability to analyze digital data and media through a sociological lens. 2°) Evaluate how institutions, inequalities, and ideologies intersect with the information environment. 3°) Apply comparative and theoretical frameworks to real-world media case studies. Please specify the different exercises and pedagogical formats you want to improve student’s learning (lecture, debate, group work, workshop…): The course combines short lectures with guided discussions in-class to keep the workload manageable, complemented by field site visit. Students will also participate in small-group activities and structured peer-feedback sessions designed to strengthen their writing and support the gradual development of their project over the semester.

To validate the course, the student is expected to pass the following assignments :

• Short reading responses – Three times during the semester, students will complete a short online reading response: add five separate annotation sentences directly on the assigned reading using our course’s online annotation tool. These are brief, low-stakes comments meant only to show engagement – 20%
• Analysis of your digital footprint – Students will request and download their own data from five social media platforms, document the process, and record basic information about each dataset in a table (without turning in any of their personal data_. They will write a two-page paper analyzing the process and what it reveals about data access, privacy, and course themes – 30%
• Information & Media Final Project – Students will explore how people access and use information in both online and offline environments, drawing on brief observations you collect yourself. You will then write a short two-page analysis that connects your findings to course themes – 40%
• Class Participation 10%