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MSc Social Media and Management

Develop your understand of existing and emerging technologies

Year of entry: 2024 (September)

Length

1 year full-time

Start date

September 2024 (semester dates)

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With improved access to the internet we have become more connected to each other and to what is happening in the world around us.

At the same time social media and information applications are transforming business.

This course will give you an understanding of existing and emerging technology and the ability to assess the impact of social media on commercial, public, and third sector organisations in the UK and worldwide.

The course is taught by experts from the Department of Sociology and School for Business and Society, combining experience from the forefront of sociological and business research.

Creative and research-led teaching

Our staff are world-leading experts, and this translates directly to our postgraduate teaching.

Employability

Gain skills in digital social research and management that are highly valued by employers.

Social media is quite a new area providing the chance to explore and discover new research areas, while management offers organisational knowledge which I feel is important for future career development.
Chengsi
MSc Social Media Management

Course content

Social media and information applications are transforming organisational development, competitiveness and flexible working. From raising a company’s profile to improving client and customer relations, this rapidly evolving sector has already affected the way many businesses work. The potential for further change is huge.

You'll develop business awareness and explore the history of organisations, their environments, and the ways in which both have changed. You'll examine how digital information communications technology (ICT) is managed, and learn to identify and analyse the key innovations made possible by new media. You will investigate new methods of digital data analysis and explore the opportunities and challenges presented by the availability of these new data forms.

Study abroad

This course is not associated with a specific Study Abroad programme, but York offers a number of options through international partnering programmes.

Study Abroad with York

Modules

Core Modules

You will take core modules which may include:

Our modules may change to reflect the latest academic thinking and expertise of our staff.

Dissertation

You will develop, design, implement and manage your own original research project, supervised by a member of staff with the relevant experience for your topic. You will analyse the data and produce a 10,000-word dissertation based on your research project.

Examples of previous dissertation titles include:

  • Analysing the use of social network sites
  • It’s all about identifications: Organisational control as enacted in discourse around working time arrangements
  • What is online curation and how is it different from other Web 2.0 sharing practices?
  • Social media within organisations: How do different cultural expectations of different user groups affect business email communications? 
  • What is the social and behavioural impact of the Apple iPod?
  • Have social networking websites altered the way that organisations recruit and select university graduates?
  • The impact of social networking sites on charitable fundraising: The comparison between China and the UK
  • A study of visual consumption within visual culture: Based on an affiliate program Fancy
  • The role of new media in politics
  • ​Application of digital by product data in decision making 
  • Social media in big data era: the commercial activities of data collection and application from “scale” to “micro” on social media platform ​

The York approach

Every course at York is built on a distinctive set of learning outcomes. These will give you a clear understanding of what you will be able to accomplish at the end of the course and help you explain what you can offer employers. Our academics identify the knowledge, skills, and experiences you'll need upon graduation and then design the course to get you there.

Students who complete this course will be able to:

  • Apply knowledge, concepts and theories from the social sciences and management to identify, understand and respond to key issues at the frontier of transformation in social media.
  • Explain, following critical evaluation, the impact upon social and commercial relations and identities of mass collaboration, interactivity, information sharing and social networking.
  • Develop strategies, based upon a critical analysis of social media, for improving social and commercial relations in business and management, the voluntary sector, and the wider social setting. 
  • Produce accurate and in-depth answers to complex management situations by identifying relevant and reliable sources of information and then deploying this information to develop their arguments. 
  • Critically analyse social media as tools for surveillance, governance and control as well as artefacts for innovation, entrepreneurship and collective action. 
  • Support organizational development and create competitive advantages and innovative working practices by applying in depth-knowledge of how social media might be used.
  • Design and conduct focused research projects that are rigorous and organised and which combine appropriate principles, theories or methodologies to produce clear insights into the aspects of social media being researched.

Fees and funding

Annual tuition fees for 2024/25

Study modeUK (home)International and EU
Full-time (1 year) £10,590£23,900

Students on a Student Visa are not currently permitted to study part-time at York.

Fees information

UK (home) or international fees? The level of fee that you will be asked to pay depends on whether you're classed as a UK (home) or international student. Check your fee status.

Find out more information about tuition fees and how to pay them.

Funding information

Discover your funding options to help with tuition fees and living costs.

We'll confirm more funding opportunities for students joining us in 2024/25 throughout the year.

If you've successfully completed an undergraduate degree at York you could be eligible for a 10% Masters fee discount.

Funding opportunities

Department scholarship information

Living costs

You can use our living costs guide to help plan your budget. It covers additional costs that are not included in your tuition fee such as expenses for accommodation and study materials.

Teaching and assessment

You’ll work with world‐leading academics who’ll challenge you to think independently and excel in all that you do. Our approach to teaching will provide you with the knowledge, opportunities, and support you need to grow and succeed in a global workplace.

Teaching format

You'll spend time working on your own, reading assigned texts and researching supporting materials, as well as working with others in seminars to discuss readings in a group and present your work. A member of the teaching staff will act as your supervisor throughout the degree, to help guide your studies and monitor progress.

You'll also attend seminars from visiting scholars on a wide variety of sociological topics.

Teaching location

You will be based in the Department of Sociology on Campus East. Most of your contact hours will be on Campus East.

About our campus

Our beautiful green campus offers a student-friendly setting in which to live and study, within easy reach of the action in the city centre. It's easy to get around campus - everything is within walking or pedalling distance, or you can always use the fast and frequent bus service.

Assessment and feedback

Core modules will be assessed by a mixture of ‘open’ essays (where an assignment is prepared in your own time) and presentations. Open assessments are released early in the term so you can select one or more essay titles to read around the topic and plan your chosen essay.

Towards the end of your studies, you'll complete a 10,000-word dissertation on an original piece of your own research.

Careers and skills

The programme helps students to develop excellent employability skills that they can utilise in a range of different future careers. Throughout the programme, students are encouraged to develop their critical thinking and to work ethically, are equipped with opportunities to source and evaluate information, and to engage in personal reflection. Students are also given opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of key criminological issues, and to communicate complex ideas in a range of written and verbal formats that are also relevant for and used in the contemporary workplace.

Career opportunities

  • Social media manager
  • Social media consultant
  • Social media marketer
  • Information analyst
  • Video editor
  • Account executive

Transferable skills

  • Managing digital communications
  • Business management skills
  • Data analysis
  • Design and completion of original research

Entry requirements

Typical offer
Undergraduate degree 2:1 or equivalent in a social science or management/business studies-related discipline. Highly qualified students from non-social science disciplines such as computer science are also encouraged to apply.
International pre-masters programme Pre-masters from our International Pathway College
Other international qualifications Equivalent qualifications from your country

English language

If English isn't your first language you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. We accept the following qualifications:

Minimum requirement
IELTS (Academic and Indicator) 6.5, minimum 6.0 in each component
Cambridge CEFR B2 First: 176, with 169 in each component
Oxford ELLT 7, minimum of 6 in each component
Duolingo 120, minimum 105 in all other components
LanguageCert SELT B2 with 33/50 in each component
LanguageCert Academic 70 with a minimum of 65 in each component
KITE 459-494, with 426-458 in all other components
Skills for English B2: Merit overall, with Pass with Merit in each component
PTE Academic 61, minimum 55 in each component
TOEFL 87, minimum of 21 in each component
Trinity ISE III Merit in all requirements

For more information see our postgraduate English language requirements.

If you haven't met our English language requirements

You may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language courses. These courses will provide you with the level of English needed to meet the conditions of your offer.

The length of course you need to take depends on your current English language test scores and how much you need to improve to reach our English language requirements.

After you've accepted your offer to study at York, we'll confirm which pre-sessional course you should apply to via You@York.

Applying

You can apply and send all your documentation online. You don’t need to complete your application all at once: you can start it, save it and finish it later.

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Department of Sociology

Related courses

Social Research (MA)

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