Digital Platforms
** available as of 06/15/2026
** available as of 06/15/2026
Prerequisites: COMM 175.
This course explores the digital platforms that shape our everyday lives--from social media and search engines to shopping and streaming services. Students will examine how platforms operate as invisible infrastructures that organize communication, commerce, and culture, drawing on scholarship about their political and social impact. Through research, discussion, and a final project, students will critically analyze how platforms influence our behaviors--and how they, in turn, understand us.
Outcomes: Analyze the historical development and social functions of major digital platforms\\n; Evaluate platform governance that shape user experience and media ecosystems; Interpret and apply key scholarly arguments about platform politics, labor, and participation; Produce a research-driven project centered on platforms' social, cultural, and economic importance.
This course explores the digital platforms that shape our everyday lives--from social media and search engines to shopping and streaming services. Students will examine how platforms operate as invisible infrastructures that organize communication, commerce, and culture, drawing on scholarship about their political and social impact. Through research, discussion, and a final project, students will critically analyze how platforms influence our behaviors--and how they, in turn, understand us.
Outcomes: Analyze the historical development and social functions of major digital platforms\\n; Evaluate platform governance that shape user experience and media ecosystems; Interpret and apply key scholarly arguments about platform politics, labor, and participation; Produce a research-driven project centered on platforms' social, cultural, and economic importance.