New minor focuses on developing students’ social media skills
Students in the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center in the College of Communication & Information building.
Students interested in learning how to analyze, interpret, and present social media data are encouraged to consider declaring the newest interdisciplinary minor offered at the College of Communication and Information: Social Media Analytics.
The School of Journalism and Media (JEM), the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relation (ADPR) and the School of Information Sciences (SIS) have collaborated to launch the minor this fall to build students’ social media expertise and skills.
JEM Assistant Professor Mustafa Oz said the goal of this minor is to equip both CCI and non-CCI majors with the skills and knowledge to navigate the rapidly evolving social media landscape.
“This minor can benefit our students by enhancing their ability to gather data from social media, analyze trends, and engage with audiences and customers effectively,” Oz said. “After completing this minor, students will be able to understand the role of social media in today’s communication environment.”
Students who complete this minor will learn how to analyze social media data, including sentiment analysis, content engagement, and audience demographics; understand how social media data can be used and studied ethically; and learn computational thinking, designs, and techniques for visualizing various types of data.
“A 21st-century job requires skills to not only use social media effectively but also conduct a systematic analysis of social media content and data and present it visually to facilitate data and information-driven decision making,” SIS Professor and Director Abebe Rorissa said. “The minor will complement any CCI and non-CCI major by giving them a competitive advantage in a work environment reliant on data and information.”
The minor provides unique hands-on opportunities for students to learn these skills. For example, ADPR Assistant Professor of Practice Joe Stabb said that, as part of the minor, students will produce and implement real tactics and measure those tactics for effectiveness. In addition, Rorissa said students will solve data-oriented problems using programming through hands-on class exercises and group projects.
ADPR Assistant Professor Matthew Pittman, who is also director of the Adam Brown Social Media Center, said offering this minor makes these skills and courses more accessible to all University of Tennessee, Knoxville, students. He said he and the other faculty who created this minor strongly believe the skills taught as part of this minor will complement most majors, as employers in many industries are interested in graduates with social media skills.
“Employers are looking for employees that can think critically and use data to make decisions and present solutions,” Stabb said. “Any student pursuing the Social Media Analytics Minor should gain an understanding of data as it relates to digital and social media and can interpret this data to create strategies for meeting organizational objectives.”
To learn more about the Social Media Analytics minor visit tiny.utk.edu/SocialMediaAnalytics.