Undergraduate teaching
COMM 211 Communication for Sustainable Social Change (offered for the first time in spring 2010)
Graduate teaching
COMM 794R: Communication for Development and Social Change I:
History, Theories & Models
Instructor: Jan Servaes
This course will explore the history and theory of communication for social change. Beginning with the nature of social change and communication in social change, the course will deal with the key paradigms in this field, in particular communication and modernisation, communication and dependence, and communication in participatory communication. The key objective of this course will be to introduce students to the traditions of employing communication for social change, to the factors that influence theory and practice, and to new, evolving approaches to applying communication for social change. Case studies of communication projects will be used as examples. At the end of the course, students will have knowledge of, and be able to distinguish between, the different approaches that characterise communication for social change (which will be further analyzed and discussed in communication for development and social change ii)
Textbook:
- Timothy Kennedy (2008), Where the Rivers Met the Sky. A collaborative approach to participatory development, Southbound, Penang, ISBN 978-983-9054-51-4
- Jan Servaes (1999), Communication for Development . One World, Multiple Cultures, Hampton, Cresskill, ISBN 1-57273-198-2
COMM 794S: Seminar – Communication for Development and Social Change II
Policies, Strategies and Exemplars
Instructor: Jan Servaes
A variety of theoretical models can be used to devise communication strategies and policies for development. In contrast with the more economical and politically oriented approach in traditional perspectives on modernization and development, the central idea in alternative more culturally oriented versions of multiplicity and sustainable development is that there is no universal development model which leads to sustainability at all levels of society and the world, that development is an integral, multidimensional, and dialectic process that can differ from society to society, community to community, context to context.
Distinct development communication approaches and communication means used can be identified within organizations working at distinct societal and geographic levels. Some of these approaches can be grouped together under the heading of the diffusion model, others under the participatory model. The major ones could be identified as follows:
- Extension/Diffusion of Innovations as a Development Communications Approach
- Network development and documentation
- ICTs for Development
- Social Marketing
- Edutainment (EE)
- Health Communication
- Social mobilization
- Information, Education and Communication (IEC)
- Institution building
- Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP)
- Development Support Communication (DSC)
- HIV/AIDS community approach
- Community Participation
The Seminar will explore a selection of these approaches and present exemplars and cases.
Textbook:
Jan Servaes (ed.) (2008), Communication for Development and Social Change, Sage, Los Angeles, ISBN 978-0-7619-3609-1
Prerequisite: Course 794R or equivalent. Permission to enroll will be granted on the basis of instructor consent.
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