Politics at your Fingertips: How Social Media Changes the Political Game

Course Description

Social media is a big part of our everyday life, and it has become the most popular way that
people learn about politics and current events. One of the best features of social media - that
anyone can have access and can post what they want - is also what makes it so interesting
and complex to explore and understand. Both in Canada and internationally, social media
plays a big role in how people understand politics and form opinions about current events.
Through posting and consuming, social media forms the filter for how we engage with the
world. This course aims to explore the power of social media and its relationship to politics.
This will include exploring the most popular social media platforms (e.g. TikTok, Instagram,
X, Youtube) and the various different actors who use them (e.g. influencers, political actors,
and political parties) to explore how politics is shared through social media, and how people
can use social media to influence politics. Students taking this course will have the
opportunity to explore real-world and real-time examples of how social media acts on politics
from both directions, such as how social media trends reflect political trends. Participating in
this course will involve exploration of topics of political influence, political opinions, social
media, polarization in media, and international politics, and will involve a combination of
lecture style and discussion-based learning, with lots of opportunity for students to explore
their areas of interest through a short in-class project. If you love social media and are
interested in learning more about its growing place in politics, then this is the course for you!