A university is to offer a master's degree teaching students about social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Bebo.
The £4,400 MA in Social Media will also explain how to set up blogs and publish podcasts.
The one-year course at Birmingham City University will consider social networking sites as communications and marketing tools.
Jon Hickman, the course convener, said he had received a good response from potential students and described what the course would entail.
He said: "It's not for freaks or IT geeks, the tools learnt on this course will be accessible to many people.
"During the course we will consider what people can do on Facebook and Twitter, and how they can be used for communication and marketing purposes.
"There has been significant interest in the course already, and it will definitely appeal to students looking to go into professions including journalism and PR."
Mr Hickman described how the course had to conform to academic standards before it was approved by education committees as a worthy course to undertake.
"In my opinion, the course does entail synoptic research and scholarly activity, which are the fundamental criteria for Masters degrees," he said.
"It's very relevant and very scholarly. It's a new course, but its importance is unquestionable.
"Social media is very important for jobs within the marketing and communications sector, as a skill set within other jobs, and as an industry within itself."
Despite claims of its instant popularity, students have attacked the course for being too simple.
Birmingham-based student Jamie Waterman, 20, said: "Virtually all of the content of this course is so basic it can be self taught.
"In fact most people know all this stuff already. I think it's a complete waste of university resources."
Wow!! What next? Maybe competition amongst Institutes of Higher Education is stiff, some have to find "innovative" courses just to be ahead of the pack ...
No comments:
Post a Comment