Social Lab Media Studies

By means of what type of medium can your organization best connect with your target audience? And what type of content should that media contain in order to best get your message across? These, and more questions regarding media-use are taken under investigation by Media Studies students in the course Social Lab. Does your organization have a question about the use of (social) media? Consider working it out with our Social Lab students!

What is Social Lab?

In the Social Lab course, first year Media Studies students investigate the ways in which government bodies, cities and local businesses use (social) media to keep people updated and engaged. In this course, students take the knowledge they have acquired during the first year and apply it in a more practical context. Students work in groups to consult local organizations on their social media use and help them develop a social media strategy. After a meet and greet, in which students will be able to give their preferences, they will be assigned to one of these local initiatives to learn about the ways they use social media, to discuss their relation to broader developments in social media, and ultimately to offer suggestions for their improvement.

What do we expect from our collaborators?

The course starts with a market where organizations present themselves. Here, students can get acquainted with a myriad of organizations, issues and themes. This gives the students a chance to meet some of the different organizations. Eventually, a group of students will be

Conditions

In order to safeguard the quality of education for our students, there are a couple of conditions that must be met in order to collaborate with our Social Lab students:

• There must be enough time to provide the students with guidance during the project

• It must be possible for international students students to execute the project properly (there will always be a dutch speaking person in the group as well)

• The students will execute the research, but they will not do any further elaborations on the project (for example: they will develop a communication plan, but they will not do any communication jobs for your company)

Your question in Social Lab?

Do you want to collaborate with us? The staff at the Science Shop Language, Culture and Communication are happy to help you formulate a research question. The science shop, together with the Media Studies department, functions as a mediator and supervisor of the project. There are no costs associated with this project.