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MJRU-NETCM

Digital and Social Media

Undergraduate major

Explore the human side of the internet and graduate ready for roles in digital and social media strategy.

Course outline
  • Qualification
    Digital and Social Media Major (BA)
  • Credit

    Credit

    200
Course outline

Select your preferred degree

This course belongs to multiple degrees. Select the single degree or double degree below to see the application deadlines.

Course outline
Digital and Social Media

Overview

Overview

This course explores the social, cultural and political impacts of the internet, and digital and social media platforms.

You will learn the fundamentals of online communications: how people network, create, collaborate and share information through digital and social media platforms, for a range of different purposes and career paths.

Throughout the course, you’ll build practical and advanced skills in creating, maintaining and managing online communications across web media, publishing and presence; and develop expertise in online collaboration and community management.

You’ll learn how to mobilise digital and social media to promote products, causes and interests.

You’ll also explore how digital and social media are reshaping political systems, cultures, societies and economies, and how to use digital and social media to make the world a better place.

After completing your course you'll have the career-ready skills for diverse roles in digital and social media; and strategy, content and policy.

Digital and Social Media is offered as part of the Bachelor of Arts. You can create a degree that suits your career goals by enhancing your studies with a second major.

You can also study Digital and Social Media as part of a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Commerce, or Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts double degree.

This course can also studied within the Web Media specialisation of the Bachelor of Communications.

How this course will make you industry ready

Our units cover web-based media and content creation; writing for web-based platforms; everyday life in digital cultures; digital identity and self-branding; entertainment and games; digital economies; online activism and social movements; power and politics in the digital era; and theories of the role of technology in social change.

We design activities and assessments using various platforms and tools, including social media such as Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. You will create content that are placed online in selected platforms, learning hands-on how to deploy them in fruitful ways.

What jobs can the Digital and Social Media course lead to?

Careers

  • Online content creator
  • Web designer / developer
  • Social media coordinator
  • Web communications manager
  • Digital producer / strategist
  • Data business analyst
  • Policymaker.

Industries

  • Media and communications
  • Advertising and marketing
  • Research and policy
  • Non-profit and community sector.

What you'll learn

  • understand and apply key concepts of Internet Studies and apply transdisciplinary thinking to the application and creation of ideas concerning networked technologies of information and communication
  • think critically, creatively and reflectively so as to imagine, design, use and critique networked technologies of information and communication
  • conduct appropriate scholarly and professional research to find, access, organise, evaluate and synthesise information through a variety of media and apply that information to the construction of knowledge
  • communicate and facilitate communication through a variety of media, for different purposes, and for different audiences
  • use the Internet and related networked technologies of information and communication with an understanding of the complex interaction of political, cultural, and economic forces that constitutes technology as social
  • further develop skills and knowledge through self-directed learning
  • understand the complex interplay of local, national and global factors that influence and are expressed through the Internet and networked technologies of information and communication
  • recognise and value cultural difference and understand its significance in relation to network technologies and their use in society for communication and information
  • act ethically and responsibly to use, sustain and expand the social, business and cultural networks that exist via the Internet, when working independently and in teams

Why study Digital and Social Media at Curtin?

Get the Curtin edge

In your final year, you’ll get the chance to develop a website and social media presence as part of a small team project, which you can add to your portfolio.

Cutting-edge

Curtin was one of the first Australian universities to offer an internet studies degree in 1999. Since then, we’ve stayed at the forefront by delving into AI and updating our understanding of the internet’s impact on societal change.

Broad career options

This course has an open structure, with choices between multiple elective units, so you can acquire the skills and knowledge you want.

While I was finishing the last assignments for my degree, I started working for Perenti Group, a mining services company with more than 8000 employees as a Communications Advisor. I used my Digital and Social Media studies to roll out Workplace by Meta (Facebook for grownups, as the staff call it) to all Australian frontline employees who don’t have access to emails or intranet. This is about 70% of our workforce based on mine sites who now have their own digital communities to share everything from rosters to pictures of their pets. 

MJ Rowan
Credit for recognised learning (CRL)

Use your experience to get credit towards your degree

Finish your course sooner with credit for your previous study or work experience.

Fees and scholarships

Please view the Bachelor of Arts degree for indicative fees.

Looking for more detail on the course structure?

View course structure

How to apply

Please review information on how to apply for the campus of your choice

Apply now

Frequently asked questions

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  • The offering information on this website applies only to future students. Current students should refer to faculty handbooks for current or past course information.

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  • Curtin course code: MJRU-NETCM
  • Last updated on: 11 December 2024

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