COMM 4360 - Communication Networks and Social Capital

(crosslisted) INFO 4360
(CA-AG, SBA-AG)

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: COMM 2450/INFO 2450 or INFO 2040.

D. Margolin, staff.

Course covers the relationship between communication networks and social capital and explores the tension between individual and group capital.

Outcome 1: Students will gain the ability to explain situations in “network terms,” as well as improve in their ability to evaluate claims made in quantitative network studies. This will be achieved through reading and discussion of social scientific research papers with attention to a) whether knowledge claims are justified by the data analysis presented, and b) ways to reconcile competing claims made in different papers. Students will learn to apply their ability to recognize network-related situations and evaluate factual claims by applying these skills to analysis of “scenario” documents (see #2).

Outcome 2: Students will improve their ability to do independent research about and to apply critical, theoretical thinking to both real and hypothetical scenarios. This will be achieved through the identification of “scenarios” where networks and social capital are relevant. Students will be asked to identify “scenarios” – including news articles.