84390 Social Media, Technology, and Conflict
Units: 9.0
Instructors: Marcellino
Schedule: TR 10:10-11:30AM REMOTE
Description:
This course will examine the role that social media and technology have had on conflict and governance over the past decade. Interconnectedness has expanded dramatically and continues to expand, not only within coastal cities but also between them and their hinterlands, from city to city, and between home populations and global networks, including diaspora populations. The Arab Spring uprisings were significantly influenced by the use of cell phones, social media, and text-messaging as organizing tools. But it is not only protesters that are harnessing the power of social media and emerging technologies- insurgent groups like the Islamic State have been able to use Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and other social media platforms to their advantage. Apps have been used to both recruit and fund raise for terrorist groups, while individuals living on the other side of the world are radicalized by virulent ideologies spread through the Internet. The proliferation of so-called "fake news" and the ubiquity of social media has introduced an entirely new variable into the study of conflict and relations between individuals, small groups, non-state actors, and nation-states.
Co-lists: 84-690