J840 Communicating Social and Environmental Initiatives

J840 COMMUNICATING SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES (3 credits)

Instructor: Simran Sethi, Associate Professor of Journalism
William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communications
1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Dole #2071, Lawrence KS 66045
simran@ku.edu (785) 864-8021

Course Dates: 6/19 AND 6/20 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Edwards campus); TBD day Week of 6/22 (distance learning lectures via conference call, 1 p.m. to 2  p.m.); TBD day Week of 6/29 (conference call with instructor, 20 minutes); Week of 7/6 & 7/13 (field work per your schedule); week of 7/24 AND 7/25 (9am‐5pm, Edwards campus)

Office Hours: By appointment. This concentrated course affords limited face‐to‐face time. It’s your responsibility to schedule time with me if you require personalized attention outside of class. Office hours can be held virtually via Skype or telephone or in person on the Lawrence campus.
Graduate Teaching Assistant: Cheri LeBlond, cleblond@ku.edu

Course Description

“Communication about the environment [and sustainability] matter. . .in the naming of the conditions that we take to be problems, but it also matters in the ways we interact with our communities, our workplaces, and the natural world.” –Robert Cox

The increase in communications focusing on sustainability topics, coupled with growing questions around green marketing and the desire of various company stakeholders (such as customers) to dialog about company practices signals a larger shift: sustainability is now a critical part of many non‐profits and companies’ communications strategies. The critical question is, “What defines authentic and effective sustainability communication?”

Sustainability touches every aspect of our lives, including national security, economy prosperity, conservation, civil rights, public health and personal well‐being. This service‐learning course will provide practical tools for effective communications about social, environmental and sustainability issues, using food and agriculture as the primary topics through which we explore these initiatives.

We will study various styles of environmental and social communications including public relations, marketing, education, news, outreach and public policy. We will look at the history of these types of communications and analyze the ways sustainability is currently defined and used by businesses and
non‐profits. And we will work with the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture to better frame sustainability issues in the agricultural state of Kansas and develop key messaging for divergent constituents.

The course will include distance learning lectures, required field work, and the use of blogs and other social networking tools.

Communicating Social and Environmental Initiatives is open to all students with a sincere interest in sustainability. Prior knowledge of environmental science and sustainability are not required.

Course Blog: http://mediaenvironment.wordpress.com/

Service Learning Organization: Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture

Required Text: Doppelt, Bob, Leading Change Toward Sustainability, Oregon: Greenleaf Publishing: 2003.
ISBN: 978‐1‐874719‐64‐9

Suggested Text: Cox, Robert, Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2006.
ISBN: 978‐0‐761930501.