Undergraduate - UnitAZA2436 - New media and cyber cultures

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	School of Social Science, South Africa
Offered	South Africa First semester 2013 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Joanah Gadzikwa

Synopsis

In this unit students gain an understanding of the technological, social, economic and political forces driving the development, and adoption of new media and communications technologies. These driving forces and the adoption of new media and communications technologies are traced in terms of their relevance to South Africa and other African coutries. The unit uses case studies of South African and global examples of when 'old technologies were new' such as the telegraph and radio as well as the social shaping of very recent examples of new media, such as Online Social Networking and Twitter. Instrumentalist, substantivist and technologically determinist perspectives on new media will be compared as a means of understanding the dynamic convergence of telecommunications, IT and media industries.

Outcomes

At the completion of this subject students are expected to:

Have gained an understanding of the historical development of new media technologies with specific reference to South Africa and Africa;
Have gained knowledge leading to a more informed understanding of contemporary developments in communication internationally;
Understand the processes and effects of media convergence, with particular reference to the Internet and other emergent technologies globally, in South Africa and on the African continent;
Have gained an understanding of the forces driving the global information revolution;
Understand the issues arising from mass adoption of new media technologies;
Have developed the ability to critically analyse and evaluate the economic, social, cultural, political impacts of communication developments, with specific reference to the political mobilisation of civilians in countries such Egypt and Lybia.
Have developed an understanding of the global and social divides as they apply to the African continent.