Self-Help Books About Communication and the Communication Course: An Exercise in Assessing Popular Notions of Communication Using Theory

Objective: The objective of this activity is to help students evaluate practical advice about communication with theories of communication

Applicable courses: This activity can be adopted by a variety of different communication courses including: persuasion, interpersonal (family, gender, and/or intercultural), organizational or small-group communication, and other communication courses     

Standpoint: Wither communication?

Dennis, E. E., & Wartella, E. (Eds.). (1996). American communication research: The remembered history. Mulwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Lent, J. A. (Ed.). (1995). A different road taken: Profiles in critical communication. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Schiller, D. (1996). Theorizing communication: A history. New York: Oxford.

Signorielli, N. (Ed.). (1996). Women in communication: A biographical sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood.     

E-mail in government: Not post-bureaucratic but late-bureaucratic organizations

Empirical research provides evidence that electronic communication does not change government agencies into post-bureaucratic organizations. Structuration Theory is used to explore the interaction between e-mail use, communication patterns of civil servants, and two bureaucratic characteristics: formalization and hierarchy. Previous research suggested that the use of e-mail leads to less formalization and less hierarchy, but empirical research in three bureaucratic organizations in the Netherlands leads to different conclusions. First, the use of e-mail leads to informal formalization: the style of communication is more informal but the content focuses less on personal issues and emphasizes efficient recordings of agreements. Second, the use of e-mail leads to hierarchical horizontalization: horizontal contacts take a more central position in bureaucratic organizations but these horizontal contacts are tightly linked to vertical structures. The result of the interaction between e-mail and government bureaucracy is horizontal communication directly linked to vertical structures. Electronic communication turns government agencies into late-bureaucratic organizations.     

Reviewing Organizational Communication Concepts with the Movie Office Space

Objective: To conduct a review of organizational communication concepts in an applied context that students identify with and enjoy

Course: Organizational Communication     

Children's Literature in the Undergraduate Course on Communication Research Methods

Objective: Students will develop positive attitudes toward communication research by linking new values and principles with the familiar values and principles contained in children's literature

Course: Communication Research Methods

Objective: Students will develop positive attitudes toward communication research by linking new values and principles with the familiar values and principles contained in children's literature     

Utilization of CSR to build organizations’ corporate image in Asia: need for an integrative approach

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been found to be a strong predictor of a favorable corporate image [Gray, 1986. Managing the corporate image: The key to public trust. London: Quorum Books]. Websites have become an essential communication platform [Dawkins, 2004. Corporate responsibility: The communication challenge. Journal of Communication Management, 9(2), 108–119]. This study aims to investigate how CSR can be used in enhancing organizational corporate image. Content analyses of 150 corporate websites of organizations in Asia headquartered in Singapore were conducted, followed by in-depth interviews with public relations (PR) practitioners to examine the motivations behind their CSR engagement. Findings showed that organizations utilized CSR as a means to enhance corporate image via four ways: Engaging in two-way conversations with stakeholders, adopting an inside-out communication approach with employees, recognizing the relevance of other CSR communication channels, and communicating CSR with authenticity. However, some organizations hesitate to use CSR communication to enhance their corporate image because they wanted to avoid being seen as using CSR as a promotional tool.     

Communication Ethics and My Sister's Keeper

Objectives: To identify ethical dilemmas in communication presented in My Sister's Keeper, a novel by Jodi Picoult. To examine how one's position/perspective shapes how one interprets and evaluates situations. To analyze ethical decision making.

Relevant Courses: We have developed this activity for use in Communication Ethics; however, it could be employed in several courses like family, health, and interpersonal communication     

Discovering Differences in the Nature of Verbal and Visual Messages

Objective: Students will identify several unique characteristics of verbal vs. visual messages, including the superior ability of language to communicate objective, factual, philosophical content in past, present, and future terms; and the superior ability of visual images to communicate social-emotional meaning and concrete information limited in time to the present

Courses: This activity could be useful in any class that includes units on the nature of verbal and nonverbal messages, such as a basic survey course, communication theory, media literacy, language and communication, and verbal and nonverbal communication

A version of this assignment was presented at the 2004 Central States Communication Association Convention, Cleveland, Ohio     

A Group Project on Communication and Intercultural Friendship

Objective: To provide students with an opportunity to understand how communication can help reduce stereotypes and foster intercultural friendship

Course: Intercultural, Interpersonal     

Increasing Understanding of Routine/Everyday Interaction in Relationships

Objective: To illustrate the importance of routine/ everyday communication in relationships

Courses: Interpersonal, Intercultural, Family     

Walking the Walk: Understanding Nonverbal Communication through Walking

Objective: Students will understand the communicative power of walking and how nonverbal communication relates to attitude development

Courses: Public Speaking, Introduction to Communication Theory, and Intercultural Communication     

Yes means yes and no means no,but both these mantras need to go: communication myths in consent education and anti-rape activism*

For decades, feminists have intervened in a sexually violent culture. Many public health professionals, educators, and activists who design these interventions have called for complex conceptualizations of communication, yet communication studies scholars have not written extensively on consent. Moreover, researchers outside the field rarely rely on insights from the discipline. Accordingly, I offer a critical review of consent activism and research, and I highlight disciplinary assumptions that could enhance existing knowledge. I argue that many feminist academic/activist interventions use false ideas about communication, what I call communication myths: discourse merely reflects reality, and local discourse is disconnected from larger social Discourse. I show how these communication myths resonate with rape-supportive arguments. By suggesting communication should be unambiguous during consent, anti-violence educators/activists lower the standard for communicative competence, disconnect it from historical-cultural context, and miss opportunities to politicize consent. I argue feminists can challenge communication myths to build on existing interventions while more fully dismantling rape culture.     

Using Color of Fear and Color of Fear 2 with Class Profiles as an Instructional Tool in Interpersonal Communication

Objective: Use documentary films as catalysts around which issues of race/ethnicity can be introduced into discussions of interpersonal communication concepts and theories

Course: Interpersonal Communication     

Teaching Citizenship: Student-led Documentary Film Projects in the Communication Classroom

Courses: Communication and civic participation course; rhetorical theory, political communication, leadership

Objective: Students will explore citizenship through role models and story-telling     

“Making a Lion into a Pussycat”: Working with Difficult Group Members

Objectives: The primary objective of this activity is to identify the role of interpersonal communication skills in the small group process. Secondary objectives include engaging students in a brainstorming activity and providing an opportunity for groups to determine ways to work with difficult group members

Courses: Small-Group Communication, Business and Professional Communication, Hybrid Course     

Unify and present: Using Monroe's Motivated Sequence to teach team presentation skills

Courses: Public speaking, business and professional communication, group communication

Objectives: This activity will introduce Monroe's Motivated Sequence as a way to organize persuasive arguments; improve students’ ability to deliver presentations with consistent content, voice, and style; and improve team-based delivery skills.     

“Yo! What's it Like to be Black?”: An Exercise to Help Students Deepen the Content of Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Objectives: To help students ask questions across cultural groups that go beyond the superficial or generic so that they may move into deeper dialogue. To push students to use critical thinking and analytical skills to ask questions of substance. To help build relationships with strangers

Course: Intercultural communication     

P-value Club: Teaching Significance Level on the Dance Floor

Courses: Beginning research methods and statistics courses, as well as advanced communication courses that require reading research articles and completing research projects involving statistics

Objective: Students will understand the difference between significant and nonsignificant statistical results based on p-value     

Teaching Family Communication Concepts through Family Stories: An Analysis of Stories and Rituals in David Bradley's “Harvest Home”

Objective: Students will be able to apply the concepts of stories and rituals to an analysis of the ritual in “Harvest Home,” gaining understanding of how stories and rituals affect and reflect family values, power structures and identities.

Course: Family Communication. Especially good for family communication taught online