Course Overview

This course discusses interpersonal communication via quantitative survey approach. Students are expected to learn how various media usage influences interpersonal communication and selective behaviors. This course will introduce the history and development of various media, namely: (1) from mass media to social media, and (2) their effects on users' identity formation, (3) language use, (4) perception of communication media and interpersonal relationships especially social support networks. Through this course, students will be able to acquire basic skills to understand existing body of research studies conducted both within and outside of Japan.

Learning Achievement

Students are expected to: (a) understand media usage's influence on communication and behaviors from an interdisciplinary perspective, and (b) acquire the basic skills needed to comprehend and analyze existing body of literature via quantitative methods.

Competence

Communication competence; Quantitative research competence; Media expertise

Course prerequisites

Grading Philosophy

The overall evaluation will be based on the below activies and should be over 60% in total.
1) material preparation, discussion points submission, class participation (50%);
2) 2 final reports (50%)
The evaluation items for the report include appropriate reference to previous studies, originality of your viewpoint and logicality of the argument.

Course schedule

Apr. 18: Guidance, the definition of various media (Y)
Apr. 25: Trust, group identification and intercultural communication (Y)
May 2: Social media usage and mental health (Y)
May 9: Social comparison on Twitter and its influence on interpersonal relationship (Y)
May 16: Causal relationship between social media usage and subjective well-being (Y)
May 30: From media literacy to the Internet literacy (T)
Jun 6: Media usage and communication behavior (T)
Jun 13: Media usage and formation of community (T)
Jun 20: The history of media studies (T)
Jun 27: The way for media usage on communication (T)
July 4 is set to be a preliminary day, so that we can use it if the class is canceled for some urgent reasons.

Course type

Lectures

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

Other information

Students are required to understand discussion on the basis of statistics.
This course will be conducted via face-to-face.

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