Because Internet: The Language of Digital Media (FNDS 1203)
This course examines new forms of language resulting from the digitization of communication.
Email, texting, the internet, and social media have changed the English language. The course introduces the field of sociolinguistics, which tracks these language adaptations and interprets associated social meanings.
Students will examine formal and informal language practices, learning about academic and other styles and interpreting the significance of their language choices in different contexts. Studying language choices in this way creates an awareness of language that has widespread application to the speaking and writing tasks of academic and professional life, but even more importantly, to how individuals define themselves through their language.
This course covers topics in the disciplines of Linguistics, Communication, Journalism.
Who should take this course?
Take this course if you love language and want to understand how language adapts to digital and academic worlds. Or if you want to explore the language choices that define, redefine, and empower us. See you in class!
More about this course
Course number: FNDS 1203
Number of Credits: 4
Search UM-Dearborn Class Schedule to find out more
Dearborn Discovery Core requirements met: Critical and Creative Thinking
Meet your faculty member: Daniel Davis, Professor of Linguistics
One of the benefits of taking a Foundations course is gaining a faculty mentor that can support you throughout your college career. Get to know Daniel Davis, faculty member for Because Internet: The Language of Digital Media.
Daniel Davis likes learning languages and seeing how language changes when people adapt it for their own purposes. This led him to study Celtic languages at Harvard and Oxford universities, then to Hong Kong, where he became interested in world Englishes: How English developed into different varieties as it spread throughout the world.
Related interests include hiking, castles, karate, and coffee.
Have questions about this course? Email Dr. Davis at [email protected].