AFR 321
Trending Black: Race & Social Media in the 21st Century Fall 2020
Division II

The 21st Century ushered in new and exciting ways for people to communicate digitally. With the creation of social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more recently TikTok, connecting with the world is literally one click, or selfie away. Though much of the attention around social media is focused on people with race and educational privilege, people of color have created their own spaces to curate, articulate, and produce culture. Through the methods of rhetorical criticism, critical discourse analysis, cultural criticism and ethnography, we will investigate the ways Africana cultures, specifically in the United States, utilize social media to shape community and influence popular culture. This course will give students hands-on experience analyzing various texts, and a deeper understanding of rhetorical methodologies.