VCU is making history this fall semester as the first university in America to offer a master’s degree in sociology with a focus on Digital Sociology. Digital sociology is the study of the social practices that shape digital technology like the internet and how those technologies in turn shape social practices.
VCU is making history this fall semester as the first university in America to offer a master’s degree in sociology with a focus on Digital Sociology. Digital sociology is the study of the social practices that shape digital technology like the internet and how those technologies in turn shape social practices.
“[It] is a creative, imaginative way of performing sociology that’s also public and critical,” said Dr. Tara Staam, professor of sociology at VCU.
The term “digital sociology” was coined and defined by sociologists in the UK and Australia, who have been researching the effect of the internet of human interaction virtually since the creation of the internet. In recent years media and technology have been integrated into almost everything we do, with the result that human behavior cannot be fully understood without considering the effect of digital technologies on humans.
“The mediatization of the world… empowers and alienates at the same time that it shapes and reshapes,” said Staam.
The program will teach sociology students how to navigate data sources, analyze them through a sociological lens, and apply their findings to broader sociological problems. Students will have access to native data sources, or media created specifically for online consumption, which provide the raw statistics and case studies that graduate students need to test our their theories.
“It’s a way of connecting with the broader public and of using data that’s changing and fresh. Not talking about the way things were ten years ago, but talking about how they are now,” said Staam.
By employing various analytical skills students will develop throughout the course, digital sociology students will be able to critically analyze the data they collect using data mining, textual analysis, content analysis, virtual ethnography, social network analysis, linear regression and surveys.
This analysis will then be applied to a sociological theory and the student’s findings disseminated through social media platforms.
“I believe that sociologists are uniquely trained to not just make sense of all this new data, but to understand how these data impact issues we tend to care deeply about,” said Dr. Tressie McMillian Cottom, assistant professor of sociology at VCU and co-editor of Digital Sociologies.
Throughout the two-year program, digital sociology students will work individually to research and analyze a topic of their choosing. At the end of the course they will have built a public in-depth sociological portfolio exploring their chosen subject, complete with written explanations and visualized data presentation.
“The most important part of connecting our graduates to jobs is helping them develop a portfolio of what they do during their graduate school career,” said Cottom. “That’s why we have embedded an e-portfolio across the curriculum.”
The registration deadline for classes in digital sociology is July 1st, and because the program is so new they are willing to waive or delay the usual Graduate Requirement Examinations (GREs) for graduate students. Beginning this fall, interested undergraduate students can also take Dr. Stamm’s course “Digital Social Problems”, which is an overview of all the different social problems that digital sociologists address.
