Backgrounder Last year, 75% of Internet users in America used social media tools compared to 56% in 2007. Within the past five years, social media has become a leading tool in communication in public relations, advertisement, journalism, marketing and business. Learning and utilizing social media is essential in these fields. In Spring 2009, the Paul Miller School of Journalism and Broadcasting at Oklahoma State University offered the first course for social media, the first of its kind in the state. The course is called Social Media, JB 4520 and is taught by Bill Handy. This course offers hands-on training in social media and will educate students to use basic and advanced tools and elements, such as:
The history of social media The history and evolution of the Web Ethics & legal implications Changing communication styles Applied Theory in social media Mashable technology Business, journalistic, advertising, & personal uses Job opportunities Citizen journalists & “Cult of Amateur” Word-of-mouth Online reputation tracking Case studies of uses Usage of social media tactics Usage of tools like: blogs, microblogs, social networking, social network aggregation, wikis, social bookmarking, social news sites, opinion sites, multimedia sharing, & cloud computing
Students who may have missed out on taking Social Media JB 4520 will have the opportunity to take the course in the Fall 2009.