Course Description:
This course introduces students to critical perspectives in environmental communication through service learning designed to develop communication competencies in social action. Premised on the idea that communication powerfully impacts perceptions of the natural world, we begin with an understanding of how symbolic constructions of nature and technology shape the way people understand their relationships to the environment, society, and the world. We will examine key concepts and issues raised in environmental controversies, including the role of discourse, rhetoric, framing, and media in shaping public understandings of climate change. Students engage environmental controversies, then choose an issue/problem (informed by United Nations’ 17 Goals of Sustainable Development) to develop an environmental social action campaign. Students will actively participate over the course of the semester in implementing their campaign to change or instate a policy, regulation, or practice on campus or in the community. Social action occurs when ordinary people in everyday life work together to develop their power in order to change something that matters to them. Accordingly, this course explores how power and democracy work in the context of our climate crisis. Students study environmental communication and theories on social change to apply to the real world through a direct experience of democratic participation and leadership. They learn to define social problems and develop concrete, quantifiable solutions by participating in an environmental campaign they care about. More specifically, the course examines issue development, change theory, building power, group dynamics, strategy and tactics, and campaign planning and implementation.
Taught By:
Sue Collins
Associate Prof Comm, Culture, and Media
Michigan Technological University
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