MA Intercultural Communication / Course details

Social media, a phenomenon for connecting and collaborating, is transforming communication across cultures. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine how social media and culture affect each other among migrant groups. Students will explore the ways in which culture-related topics and theories including acculturation/adaptation, identity, interpersonal relationship and language competence are dynamically bound up with social media practices in an ever-changing world. The unit is assessed through group presentation and individual essay.

1. Introduce main theories of social media and culture, and critically review them in migration research.
2. Understand and evaluate migrants’ lived experiences based on social media discourse, in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Critique the role of social media in a migratory journey from a socio-techno perspective.
4. Develop new insights into power inequalities inherent in migration and social media practices.

Classes will consist of weekly two-hour seminars. Classes will be taught in a seminar style, incorporating the presentation of key concepts by the tutor, discussion of theoretical texts read by students prior to the class, and practical learning activities. Blackboard will be used for communication, and provision of class materials. 

• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the main theories of social media, culture and migration in intercultural communication contexts. Theories and concepts include acculturation/adaptation, online identity, social ties, affordances, social media discourse, prejudice and discrimination, online dating and romance, and ICT (dis)empowerment; 

• Discuss the potential research topics when applying social media in intercultural communication/translation studies 

• Critically analyse,the theoretical and research applications regarding how different types of migrants use social media in their migratory experiences;  

• Discuss and present how migrants’ social media use connects with social-cultural conditions.  

• Demonstrate effective social media use to cope with the challenges in migration or multicultural settings; 

• Develop research skills by linking personal migrating experience and/or observation in real life with social media use and culture.  

• Apply research skills concerning scoping, critical review, data collection and analyses, and discussion in the forms of academic paper writing and oral presentation; 

• Listen to the voices of vulnerable groups (e.g., labour migrants, refugees) and make efforts to promote equality in migration and reduce the digital divide in social media use.  

Assessment task:

Pre-recorded (asynchronous) group presentation - 25%

Essay - 75%

Resit assessment:

Essay

The following list is indicative only: 

Atay, A., & D’Silva, M. U. (Eds.). (2019). Mediated intercultural communication in a digital age. New York City, NY: Routledge.  

Carey, J. W. (2008). Communication as culture, revised edition: Essays on media and society. London and New York: Routledge. 

Hodkinson, P. (2016). Media, culture and society: An introduction. Sage.4. Kim, Y. Y. (2001). Becoming intercultural. An integrative theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation. Thousand Oaks: Sage. 

Smets, K., Leurs, K., Georgiou, M., Witteborn, S., & Gajjala, R. (2020). The SAGE handbook of media and migration. Thousand Oaks: Sage.