Postgraduate Course: Digital Influence (fusion on-site) (EFIE11010)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course will focus on increasing public and policy-maker literacy in relation in how to understand, measure, track and, potentially, wield influence in the digital field. It will cover conceptual aspects - what is influence, how does this manifest in the digital sphere; methodological aspects - how is influence measured and how to recognise robust measures of digital influence; and the moral psychology of wielding influence. By the end of this course students will have a nuanced understanding of what digital influence is and will be familiar with a range of technologies, methods, and insights on how to monitor, shape and measure the flow of influence in the digital conversation. |
| Course description |
Over the course of this offering, participants will learn to understand what digital influence is and how to harness the technologies, methods, and insights required to monitor and shape the digital conversation. This course is taught in hybrid format: 2 week pre-intensive; 2 day intensive; 2 week post-intensive. The course team is interdisciplinary: social and psychological sciences, social computational science and cognitive neuroscience. The team also includes external speakers from the corporate digital influence environment.
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities. Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- Unless the lecturer or tutor indicates otherwise you should assume the session is being recorded.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
Taught sessions will cover a mix of time spent on:
- Working in peer-reading groups
- Talks and interactive activities including lightning video presentations, twitter data hacks and a digital influence challenge.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2021/22, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 10 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 6,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 8,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 3,
Other Study Hours 3,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
78 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
3 hours scheduled group work
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
100% coursework
Digital influence challenge response - 1000 word blog post |
| Feedback |
Formative:
- 500 word synopsis of journal club reading - peer and tutor feedback (prior to 2 day-intensive)
- 1000 word blog draft - digital influence challenge response - peer feedback (7 days after 2-day intensive)
Summative:
- 1000 word blog post - digital influence challenge response - assessed with staff feedback. (14 days after 2 day intensive) |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the concept of digital influence and the moral psychology of wielding influence.
- Explain and identify key technologies for the analysis of digital influence.
- Develop original, creative and effective responses to data driven problems in relation to digital influence.
- Demonstrate their ability to communicate - in verbal and written form - coherent, balanced arguments surrounding the monitoring, shaping and measurement of digital influence.
- Work in a peer relationship and develop an independent challenge-led digital influence strategy.
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Reading List
Indicative reading list:
Llewellyn, C., Cram, L., Hill, R. L., and Favero, A. (2019) For Whom the Bell Trolls: Shifting Troll Behaviour in the Twitter Brexit Debate. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 57: 1148-1164. DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12882
Crockett, M.J. Moral outrage in the digital age. Nat Hum Behav 1, 769-771 (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-017-0213-3
Brady, W. J., Gantman, A. P., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2020). Attentional capture helps explain why moral and emotional content go viral. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149(4), 746-756. DOI: 10.1037/xge0000673
Widmann, T. (2021), How Emotional Are Populists Really? Factors Explaining Emotional Appeals in the Communication of Political Parties. Political Psychology, 42: 163-181. DOI: 10.1111/pops.12693
Fazio, L. K., Rand, D. G., & Pennycook, G. (2019). Repetition increases perceived truth equally for plausible and implausible statements. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 26, 1705-1710. DOI: 10.3758/s13423-019-01651-4
Hocking, B and Melissen, J, Diplomacy in the Digital Age (The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations 'Clingendael', 2015). [https://www.clingendael.org/publication/diplomacy-digital-age-0]
Bovet, A., Makse, H.A. Influence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election. Nat Commun 10, 7 (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07761-2 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. Students will develop nuanced knowledge and understanding of digital influence through presentations, hands-on data hacks and the production of research synopses and a digital influence challenge project.
2. Students will practice the use of computational methods to analyse twitter collections as a technique to answer scholarly research questions.
3. Students will gain cognitive skills by conducting original research on the digital influence challenge and developing their own strategy in the context of world knowledge.
4. Students will develop communication, ICT and analytic skills by interacting with academic staff and their peers in different settings (physical and online), by learning to use different computational tools and digital platforms to support their course work and collaboration skills.
5. Students will gain autonomy, accountability and learn to work with others by collaborating in small groups on the practical elements of the course and during the preparation stage of their project, developing their communication skills, and gaining valuable skills in working with others. |
| Keywords | Digital influence,social media,experimental,cognitive |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Robin Hill
Tel: (0131 6)50 4426
Email: r.l.hill@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Katie Murray
Tel:
Email: Katie.murray@ed.ac.uk |
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