Course Description
Human actions that affect the environment are dependent on how we think and communicate about nature and the environment. This class analyzes communication patterns about nature and humanity's relation to nature. In particular, it examines messages of activists, scientists, governmental agencies, and industries relating to environmental protection.
Athena Title
Environmental Communication
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in COMM 3320E
Semester Course Offered
Offered every even-numbered year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Human actions that affect the environment are dependent on how we communicate about it. In order to explore and conduct research about this connection, it is necessary to understand how the very notion of “environment” is rhetorically constructed, how controversy is the result of particular patterns of communication, how public debate about environmental policy is open to particular stakeholders and limited by the terms they set, and how social movements (broadly defined) ensure effective and inclusive public participation in policy-making. In particular, 1. Students will consider the importance of studying environmental communication from a rhetorical perspective. 2. Students will consider how various stakeholders construct and contest messages about the environment. 3. Students will consider how various stakeholders influence public and scientific discourse about the environment. 4. Students will consider the relationship between environmental discourse and public policy. 5. Students will theorize and discuss the role of controversy in environmental policymaking. 6. Students will theorize the meaning of key concepts such as “risk” in contemporary discourses about the environment. 7. Students will learn about the role of values in the construction of scientific knowledge. 8. Students will learn about the relationship between embodied experience, social relations, and the environment. 9. Through the in-depth study of case studies, including nuclear energy, climate disruption, and chemical pollution, students will apply rhetorical and communication concepts listed above.
Topical Outline
1. Social/symbolic constructions of environment 2. Public participation in environmental decisions 3. Media discourse about the environment 4. Risk communication 5. Environmental advocacy campaigns 6. Environmental justice 7. Science communication and the environment 8. The politics of environmental degradation in the South 9. Corporate marketing and advocacy
Syllabus