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 how to measure, track, and strategically wield influence in digital environments. It will cover a) conceptual aspects - what influence is and how it manifests itself in the digital sphere -, b) methodological aspects - how digital influence is measured -, and c) practical aspects - how to design a digital influence campaign.
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, measure, and shape the flow of influence in digital conversations. |
| Course description |
Over the course participants will learn to understand what digital influence is and how to harness the technologies, methods, and strategic approaches required to monitor and shape digital conversations. This course is taught in hybrid format, including a pre-intensive period, 2-day intensive block teaching period, and post-intensive period.
The course team is interdisciplinary, including experts in political science, media and communication, computational social science, and cognitive neuroscience. The team also includes external speakers with professional experience in developing digital influence campaigns.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - On-Site Fusion Course Delivery Information:
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.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the concept of digital influence.
- Explain and identify key technologies for the analysis and development 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 peer relationships 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
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students of the course will develop all the skills in the Skills for Success Framework:
- Critical Thinking, by analysing, critiquing, and designing influence campaigns.
- Curiosity, as they will be encouraged to explore and develop key ideas around how influence takes shape in the digital age.
- Problem Solving, by designing influence campaigns aimed at tackling specific problems and achieving set goals.
- Collaboration, by working in small peer groups to develop and present an influence campaign on a topic chosen among those suggested by the instructors.
- Reflection, through engagement with the readings and classroom discussion.
- Communication, through classroom activities and presentations.
- Inclusivity, by engaging with instructors and students from different academic backgrounds and with materials from different disciplines.
- Adaptivity, working with others to achieve goals in short periods of time that require combining different skills and responding to feedback.
- Data and digital literacy, with a strong focus on the ethical boundaries of digital influence and exploration of different data-driven techniques to monitor, understand, and develop influence on digital media.
- Individuality, as the course will enable each student to develop an independent pathway to knowledge and skills development tailored to their preferences, interests, and goals.
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| Keywords | Digital influence,social media,experimental,cognitive |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Cristian Vaccari
Tel:
Email: cvaccari@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Matt Bryant
Tel:
Email: Matt.Bryant@ed.ac.uk |
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