Graduate Teaching

COMM 694K: Participatory Communication – The SkyRiver Process
Course coordinator: Prof. Jan Servaes
Instructor: Prof. Tim Kennedy (Visiting from the University of Tampa)

This workshop focuses on the SKYRIVER Process, which is internationally recognized as a social invention for increasing the participation of citizens who are usually left out of the decision-making processes of government. The workshop is offered to development practitioners, teachers, researchers and students. The seminar is intended for practitioners who want to learn a strategy and tools for a collaborative approach to participatory development that focuses on the competencies and resources of community and organizational members; for teachers who are looking for a comprehensive guide from the field that provides a coherent methodology of this collaborative approach; for applied researchers who are interested in a theoretical underpinning for the new and emerging applied area of social science known as participatory action research, and for students who are interested in the topic of participatory communication..

The on-campus aspect of the SKYRIVER seminar will be divided into three related sections: The first section will provide an historic overview of the SKYRIVER process beginning with the seminal project that took place in the Lower Yukon village of Emmonak, Alaska. The second section will be divided into three integrated field exercises using video cameras and assisted by staff of ACTV, the local community media center. The third section will be concerned with how a variation of the SKYRIVER process could be implemented by the participants within their respective communities and organizations.

COMM 694M: Health Communication for Sustainable Development
Course instructor: Dr. Patchanee Malikhao
Co-instructors: Prof. Jan Servaes & Prof. Mike Begay

This course will explore health, illnesses, diseases, and health communication from the social constructivism perspective. In this perspective, culture, social class, political ideologies, and the mass media form discourses on health and health as human rights. Therefore, health communication cannot be effective without a sound understanding of intercultural communication; social stratification and the impact of social injustice on health; history of political ideologies that affect the health care system, the impact of the mass media and community-based communication on health, and the impact of evolution and globalization on health. In order to achieve a sustainable level of health wellness, strategic communication planning will be taught and discussed in a holistic approach. Planning effective health communication strategies and real-life case studies in different socio-cultural and political spheres will be the highlights of this course.

COMM 694W:  Seminar - THEORY AND PRACTICE OF DIALOGUE
Instructor: Leda Cooks

Peters (1999) observes that ideals of dialogue provide us with visions of complete fulfillment, of careful and empathic understanding. Dialogue is often seen as a bridge across differences and is a means of participation in a democratic society. However, dialogue can be a demanding partner in its insistence on a response that is framed and understood on its own terms. This course will consider the theoretical orientations and some of the consequences of the idea of communication as dialogue. We will explore the politics and practices of dialogue facilitation and consider some of the differentiations between dialogue and advocacy in the context of social justice and social change.  The focus of the dialogues will be social group identity, and race, ethnicity and gender in particular. Students will gain practical experience in facilitation in dialogues inside and outside of the classroom.

Communication 781: The Ethnography of Communication
Instructor: Donal Carbaugh

This course introduces the Ethnography of Communication (EC) as a philosophy, theory, and methodology for studying communication anywhere on the globe. It is a unique program for research as it explores all media, means, and meanings of communication as culturally distinctive practices. Various research exemplars are examined which demonstrate the utility of the approach as a way of studying, for example, interpersonal, intercultural, organizational, rhetorical, and political communication. The objectives include assessments of best practices for sustainable living as these apply, for example, to environmental, health, social, political, and material factors, each being understood through ethnographic inquiry.

COMM 792A INTERNET RESEARCH
Instructor: Jarice Hanson

The course functions as a lab, discussion, and research center to explore and experiment with the Internet as both a tool for conducting research, and as a focus for research questions approached from a Communication perspective. In almost every class we combine discussion of readings with explorations of the Internet. Students are encouraged to come to the class with some research questions to explore the Internet as a focus of research activity which will be incorporated into the class, and the syllabus has been designed to be flexible enough to incorporate students’ interests. Students will examine how the Internet can be used as a tool for online surveys, the role of anonymity and the creation of avatars as components of identity construction, and the social impact of those who are marginalized in the Internet "community" through the digital divide, disability divide, the knowledge divide, or through resistance.
Readings include: R. Burnett and P.D. Marshall, /Web Theory, /(2003), A.N. Markham and N.K. Bayam, /Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method/ (2009), H. Jenkins, /Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide/, (2006), and a number of contemporary articles that apply web theory and provide a context for research.

COMM 792J THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
Instructor: Jarice Hanson

The term, “the information society” has been a part of our culture for over 30 years—but what does it mean? This course will focus on (a) how the term evolved in both popular and scholarly communities, (b) appropriate methodological and theoretical frameworks for examining aspects of “the information society,” and (c) the forecasts and assumptions for the global “society.” To examine these issues we will draw most heavily on the role of communication and information technologies as the catalyst for social organization and institutional influence. It is assumed that most students have an understanding of fundamental media theory (such as that covered in Comm 691B), but if students have not had the fundamental course, additional readings and/or discussion will help students understand how advanced positions grow from basic concepts.
Every graduate course takes shape because of the participants’ interests and personal goals for the course. As a result, this course is designed to provide a broad background through readings and discussions, but each student is asked to contribute to the course direction and content by focusing on an aspect of the information society that they find particularly interesting. No one specific theoretical or methodological approach will be taken; rather, different strategies and approaches toward studying research questions will be examined through the readings and discussions in which we try to apply theories and methods to different contexts.
 
COMM 792K Seminar – TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
Instructor: Jarice Hanson

Many studies in media have shifted from the notion of “mass” media to highly individualized, personal use of communications technologies that involve the user’s desire to access specific messages rather than mass messages. In the studies that focus on individual use of media, time, space, identity, and community may be evaluated according to different criteria than those studies that had previously considered “mass” media and “mass” audiences. This course will involve readings in technology and society to better (a) understand the theoretical underpinnings of technology and society studies, and (b) to better situate contemporary studies of individual use of media within the framework of the literature of media studies and (c) provide a sense of the type of CMC studies that are appropriate for emerging technologies. We will be developing two themes throughout the course: (1) how new information and communication technologies (ICTs) change social dynamics and social relationships, and (2) how ICTs mediate concepts of civil society.

Communication 794: Cultural Discourse Analysis
Instructor: Donal Carbaugh

This course introduces the theory and research literature of Cultural Discourse Analysis (CuDA). CuDA is a version of the ethnography of communication which gives special attention to communication codes. The theory and methodology of CuDA is introduced through five modes of inquiry, descriptive, interpretive, comparative, and critical inquiry. Critical inquiry is conducted with special attention to the use, interpretation, and development of local ethics for sustainable living. The procedures for each mode of inquiry are discussed and practiced as a way of examining how culture inhabits all communication practice. Special attention is given inter-discourse dynamics for example between agencies and/or local communities.

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