Abstract:

The paper looks at case studies of using web 2.0 applications such as Facebook and its role in two mass communication courses, News Writing and Visual Communication. The article then analyzes the social, legal and ethical implications of its application within an academic set up and its capability thus to inform students and enhance their educational insights, while engaging the students and simulating the real world in a model of collaborative learning.

While this process may be beneficial academically and professionally to students, it may raises important concerns, which will be addressed in the paper:

1.What are current and future social and legal implications of using social media in classrooms? Some concerns raised in journalism and visual communication classes include copyrights and intellectual property. When using a public forum such as Facebook, what are some practical considerations of publishing original and remixed media creations?

2.How does one discern the role of such applications in a classroom as the social media themselves evolve to accommodate varying levels of privacy and configurations of copyright? The unpredictable and changing nature of privacy in Facebook itself needs to be coded into the possibility of a rubric.

3.How will the international platform, shifting hierarchies and information flows of the Internet in a “flat world” bring with this, additional educational advancements and cultural amalgamations?

Keywords:

Social Media, web 2.0, Facebook, Journalism, Mass Media, Visual Communication, Academia, Technology, Intellectual Property.