Communication 408 - Survey of Digital Behavior

Algorithms and data increasingly power our private and civic life. Companies, nonprofits, and governments have invested heavily in data mining, the bulk collection of user behavior data from web platforms to understand public opinion and to forecast trends. A lot of fashionable terms, such as artificial intelligence and big data, are being thrown around these days. The public and regulators also become increasingly wary of the dark side of algorithms - the skepticism has culminated after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the revelation of alleged foreign propaganda in the US through social media. This course gives a practical understanding of how data mining and algorithms work. You will learn R, a programming language and obtain marketable computational skills in data analytics and visualization, as well as evidence-based critical perspectives on the algorithmic society we live in.

Open to Senior and Junior Communication majors only. All others by permission of instructor. This course was formerly numbered as 497DB. If you have already taken 497DB, you cannot take this course.