On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Critically analyse the similarities and differences between emerging methods of digital research and traditional social research methods;
2. Undertake in-depth evaluation of the possible challenges of digital technologies to established theoretical assumptions and paradigms in the social sciences and in interdisciplinary contexts;
3. Articulate a critical understanding of different digital research methods and analyse their relative merits and limitations for different research contexts;
4. Demonstrate their ability to participate in networked scholarly practices across the social web.

Overview of the field of digital research
Conceptualising digital research settings
Digital scholarly practices including networking, open access approaches, and developing a professional web presence
Digital research similarities and differences in comparison to more traditional research practices
Understanding of the place of digital research in the broader field of social research
Limitations and possibilities for digital research
Ethical concerns associated with digital data gathering, analysis and production
The political economy of digital data; power, control, and politics
Working with big data and data science techniques