Other Communication Commons^™

Reducing Secondary Trauma And Compassion Fatigue In The Dark Side Of Interpersonal Communication Classrooms, Mary E. King, Albra Wheeler

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This essay describes the experiences faculty may encounter when teaching tough topics. When professionals are in the position as the individual who cares for, hears about, or witnesses the trauma and suffering of others, they might themselves be at risk for experiencing vicarious stress, or secondary trauma. If ongoing and untreated, this traumatic stress can morph into compassion fatigue, which can impede professional success and contribute to burnout. This essay reflects on the experiences of teaching the Dark Side of Interpersonal Communication where students openly shared course-related personal experiences. We reflect on how to successfully manage the delicate climate of …

Perspectives On Teaching The Family Communication Course, Tiffany R. Wang, Jeffrey T. Child

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This article discusses what undergraduate students enrolled in a family communication course should learn. It is intended to provide readers with a general direction on how to design or teach a family communication course so that students understand a communication-centered approach to family. This article highlightssome of the foundational theories and concepts grounding most family communication courses, content areas typically addressed when considering the family communication course, possible assignments that might be useful in teaching the course, and relevant issues related to teaching family communication. If instructors thoughtfully consider content and assignment decisions in the family communication course, they have …

Engaging Persuasion: What Should Undergraduate Students Enrolled In A Persuasion Course Learn?, Stephen K. Hunt, Kevin Meyer

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

In our daily activities we are bombarded with persuasive messages. From advertising on mass and social media to interactions with friends, we are constantly exposed to attempts to change or reinforce our attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors. Conversely, we routinely attempt to influence others and gain their compliance through persuasive attempts of our own. Without question, persuasion is a central feature of virtually every aspect of human communication and is found wherever we find people communicating. Fortunately, scholars have developed a great number of empirically tested persuasive techniques, strategies, and theories that can help students become effective producers and consumers …

Reflections On A Pedagogical Shift: A Public Speaking For Social Justice Model, Angela L. Putman

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

While the basic content of the public speaking course has changed little, the method and manner in which these skills are taught can, and should, reflect the dynamic socio-political contexts in which we live and teach. This reflection essay addresses a struggle to keep the public speaking course relevant, innovative, and practical while also incorporating necessary learning outcomes. As a potential solution, I introduce a Public Speaking for Social Justice Model for the introductory course. The model requires that students thoroughly examine a timely social justice issue; situate themselves and their classmates within the issue while featuring marginalized voices and …

Hearing Is Believing: Using Audio Feedback In The Online Interpersonal Communication Course, Krista Hoffmann-Longtin

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

The introduction to interpersonal communication course (IPC) is popular for both communication majors and nonmajors alike, and as such, many departments have designed online versions of the course. Teaching IPC in this format has challenges, given its dual emphasis on theoretical understanding and skill-building. This reflection essay explores the efficacy of providing audio feedback on essays in the online IPC course, as a way to create a positive online presence, manage the grading load, and encourage students to implement the feedback. The rationale for this approach to feedback and implementation strategies are provided, as well as a discussion of outcomes …

Best Practices For Teaching Discussion As Part Of High School Common Core State Standards, Mitchel Stengel, Leah Nolan, David Donnick, Wesley Skym, Anna M. Wright

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Instructional discussion is a teaching method used in many classrooms across grade levels. In fact, the Common Core State Standards promote the use of instructional discussion in secondary classrooms (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2018a). Students, however, are not always taught best practices for engaging in a discussion and may feel unprepared to participate. As a result, discussions may not produce the dynamic learning opportunity they are intended to foster. This essay provides 10 tips for high school teachers to prepare students in the high school classroom to engage in a meaningful classroom discussion effectively in order to ensure students …

Developing A Digital Voice: Embedding Digital Communication Platforms, Networks, And Technologies In The 21st-Century Classroom, James M. Proszek

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Introductory communication courses are an invaluable resource for improving students’ abilities to speak confidently, passionately, and persuasively, while also inspiring them to become more engaged citizens. However, digital media present new opportunities and challenges for designing courses that are relevant to students’ personal and professional interests and goals. Instructors who incorporate digital communication platforms, networks, and technologies into their classrooms can better prepare students to meet the complex demands of the technologically-mediated 21st century. In this essay, I offer 10 best practices for developing students’ digital media literacies within multiple communication contexts.

Best Practices For Facilitating Difficult Dialogues In The Basic Communication Course, Kristina Ruiz-Mesa, Karla M. Hunter

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Effective facilitation of classroom dialogue can stimulate open discussion and debate, challenge students to consider diverse perspectives, and promote critical student reflection and growth. Unfortunately, some instructors may be hesitant to approach controversial topics, for fear of losing face or risking chaos in the classroom. By learning and practicing established facilitation techniques, teachers can develop confidence and competence in harnessing the pedagogical power of difficult dialogue while maintaining classroom cohesion and community. This article provides 10 best practices for facilitating difficult classroom dialogues. These practices equip instructors with resources for building community, maintaining classroom immediacy, and grappling with disagreements without …

Communication Concepts In Action: Best Practices In Case Study Pedagogy In The Organizational Communication Course, Andrea L. Meluch, Patricia E. Gettings

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Analyzing case studies is a useful way to assist students in drawing connections between organizational communication concepts and real-world experiences. As faculty members who teach organizational communication, we regularly use case study pedagogy. Case study pedagogy provides a rich narrative through which complex organizational communication concepts can be identified, analyzed, and reflected upon. This article provides 10 best practices for utilizing and assessing case study pedagogy in the organizational communication course. These practices include: to make clear connections between case studies and course materials, scaffold learning, choose a mix of cases, cultivate a sense of community in the classroom, enable …

Exploring Echo-Systems: How Algorithms Shape Immersive Media Environments, James N. Cohen

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In the lead up to the 2016 election, fake news often “outperformed” actual news in users’ social media feeds (Silverman, 2016). This paper attempts to analyze the process in which fake news proliferates social networking sites and presents a method of understanding and articulating ways in which personalized feeds are shaped by algorithm-based user feedback. The algorithm systems are embedded programs that analyze past user data and search history in combination with other users’ searches and history to calculate digital outcomes, anticipate possible recommendations, and present consumers with feeds that represent their own unique immersive media environments.

As of August …

Both Facts And Feelings: Emotion And News Literacy, Susan Currie Sivek

Journal of Media Literacy Education

News literacy education has long focused on the significance of facts, sourcing, and verifiability. While these are critical aspects of news, rapidly developing emotion analytics technologies intended to respond to and even alter digital news audiences’ emotions also demand that we pay greater attention to the role of emotion in news consumption. This essay explores the role of emotion in the “fake news” phenomenon and the implementation of emotion analytics tools in news distribution. I examine the function of emotion in news consumption and the current status of emotion within existing news literacy training programs. Finally, I offer suggestions for …

Civic Media Literacy In A Transmedia World: Balancing Personal Experience, Factual Accuracy And Emotional Appeal As Media Consumers And Circulators, Ellen Middaugh

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Amid growing concerns over the role of “fake news” in civic and political life, efforts to understand how to best prepare youth to evaluate and reason about online sources have gained a sense of urgency. However, less attention has been paid to how such skills are used in the context of the broader array of information behavior that is typical of civic and political participation today—particularly in the circulation of information. Through thematic analysis of interviews and think aloud tasks with n=24 urban high school students reasoning through the processes of search, credibility analysis and circulating information for the purposes …

Media Literacy And Climate Change In A Post-Truth Society, James S. Damico, Mark Baildon, Alexandra Panos

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In this article we draw from ecolingusitics (Stibbe, 2015) and a civic media literacy framework (Author, in press; Masyada & Washington, 2016) to consider what happened when three pairs of preservice teachers with different academic backgrounds and climate change beliefs jointly evaluated the reliability of two media sources that make opposing arguments about climate change. An ecolinguistics perspective attends to the environmental impact of the “stories-we-live-by” (Stibbe, 2015) and a civic media literacy lens highlights the centrality of dialogue and deliberation along with critical reading when evaluating the reliability of information sources about complex socioscientific topics like climate change. Our …

Media Literacy, Democracy, And The Challenge Of Fake News, Lance E. Mason, Dan Krutka, Jeremy Stoddard

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In this essay, the authors offer a context for discussions about fake news, democracy, and considerations for media literacy education. Drawing on media ecology and critical media studies, they highlight the longer history of fake news and how this concept cannot be separated from the media technologies in which cultures grow. They discuss current iterations of this phenomenon alongside the effects of social media and offer a preview of the special issue.

Book Review: Exploring Critical Digital Literacy Practices: Everyday Video In A Dual Language Context, Lucie Roemer

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Teaching Climate Change To Adolescents: Reading, Writing, And Making A Difference, Antonio Lopez

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents: Reading, Writing, and Making a Difference, is a book for English language arts and media literacy teachers that provides abundant resources for educators wanting to incorporate climate change instruction into their classrooms. This review explores the usefulness of the book and discusses more broadly the barriers and opportunities for incorporating environmental issues into media literacy education.

Mediating Religious Literacy Among Primary School Children In Gujarat: Classroom As A Liminal Space, Kiran Vinod Bhatia

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Articulation of religious guidelines in the political milieu never takes place in a disembodied form; rather politically inscribed religious discourses are embedded within and conveyed through specific institutional channels, including media organizations and education institutions. My experiences of working as a media educator in villages in Gujarat have helped me understand how the learning of such discriminatory practices begin early as students use various linguistic and socio-cultural cues in order to make sense of the society. A classroom, however, provides the required space to entertain differences such that we can delimit the social hierarchies that are naturalized in the minds …

Deconstructing Media In The College Classroom: A Longitudinal Critical Media Literacy Intervention, Andrea M. Bergstrom, Mark Flynn, Clay Craig

Journal of Media Literacy Education

While many studies have addressed the impact of media literacy interventions on knowledge of specific topic areas, few have explored improvements in media literacy skills as outcome measures. This study analyzed the impact of a media literacy intervention on participants’ critical thinking skills and understanding of media literacy principles by addressing the topics of body image and media representations of gender and race. A two-group, longitudinal experimental design was implemented using college-aged student participants across multiple course sections (n = 198) at a public university in the southeast. Results were significant for several media literacy measures for the treatment …

How Brazil’S Unified University Entrance Exam (Enem) Impacts Media Literacy Education, Danilo Venticinque, Andrew Whitworth

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This article discusses the outcomes of research into the media literacy aspects of ENEM (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio), Brazil's unified university entrance exam, which contains a significant number of exam questions based on excerpts from newspaper articles, online news and other media sources. Through content analysis, these questions are classified according to the platform (digital or print) and source (traditional media, niche media and government agencies). The results show a strong prevalence of traditional media, either in print or digital platforms, and a tendency to present the government in a positive light, avoiding issues such as the …

Foregrounding Morality: Encouraging Parental Media Literacy Intervention Using The Tares Test For Ethical Persuasion, Kevin J. Pearce, Stanley Baran

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In the United States, children are exposed to literally hundreds of thousands of television commercials a year and virtually every aspect of kids’ lives are replete with commercial messages. The negative effects of this exposure are well documented. Yet, there remains very little regulation or limit on advertising to children beyond that which exists for adults. Additionally, only about 1/3 of U.S. parents wish for stronger controls. This presents a challenge for media literacy scholars and practitioners. Research has shown that, when presented with information about the negative effects of commercial messages, parents are more likely to adopt some form …

Teaching Girls Online Skills: Results Of The Wikid Grrls Intervention, Stine Eckert, Jade Metzger-Riftkin, Joanna Nurmis

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In 2013-2016 we designed and implemented Wikid Grrls, a 10-week after-school workshop series to teach online skills to middle school girls in U.S. schools. We interviewed and surveyed 80 participants before and after the workshops. Girls’ online skills and confidence in them increased measurably for the duration of the workshop series. Participants expressed great interest in learning more, but media literacy programs at their schools regarding online skills were lacking. Using feminist theories and the reader-to-leader framework, we argue that such media literacy interventions bring immediate learning rewards for participants. Yet, we conclude that to narrow gender gaps in digital …

Media Literacy Policy In Flanders – Belgium: From Parliamentary Discussions To Public Policy, Leo Van Audenhove, Hadewijch Vanwynsberghe, Ilse Mariën

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The discussion on media literacy in Flanders starts in the Flemish Parliament in 2006. It will take until 2013 before the Flemish Government will set up the Knowledge Center for Media Literacy—Mediawijs. Flanders is therefore rather late in establishing a dedicated institute for media literacy. The same can be said for developing a formal policy framework in relation to media literacy. This article starts with a theoretical discussion of three major trends in the current media literacy debate. The article moves on to describe and analyze Flanders media literacy policy debates and policy formulation. It highlights the development and remit …

Teaching Social Justice: Intergenerational Service-Learning In Digital Media Course, Margaret O. Finucane, Linda M. Seiter, Nathan C. Gehlert

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Digital media play an increasingly dominant role in reinforcing and challenging power inequality in social and institutional relationships. This paper describes how a service-learning component engaged students in community-based interactions that not only deepened their understanding of course content but also increased their commitment to diversity, community issues, and personal development. A close look at three case studies shows that integrating service learning into a first year seminar on digital media and social justice had positive outcomes for students when intentionally paired with community partners offering course-related projects.

Youth And The City: Reflective Photography As A Tool Of Urban Voice, Roman Gerodimos

Journal of Media Literacy Education

YYoung people’s engagement with urban public space has been facing a number of obstacles that reflect a lack of understanding of their needs, values and priorities. The emergence of digital devices and social media as integral elements of youth culture adds further urgency to the need to understand how young people themselves visually articulate their perceptions of life in the city. Bringing together elements from urban studies, youth studies and digital media literacy, this paper puts forward a pedagogic and research approach that aims to facilitate youth engagement with urban landscapes and the community. Participatory photography was used a tool …

The Promises, Challenges, And Futures Of Media Literacy, Monica Bulger, Patrick Davison

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Media literacy has become a center of gravity for countering fake news, and a diverse array of stakeholders – from educators to legislators, philanthropists to technologists – have pushed significant resources toward media literacy programs. Media literacy, however, cannot be treated as a panacea. This paper provides a foundation for evaluating media literacy efforts and contextualizing them relative to the current media landscape. Media literacy is traditionally conceived as a process or set of skills based on critical thinking. It has a long history of development aligned along the dialectic between protection and participation. Contemporary media literacy tends to organize …

Radio Waves And Curriculum Pathways: Jamaican “At Risk” Learners Construct Media, Paulette J. Feraria

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This paper explores radio play as an alternative space for learning language and literacy for Jamaican students labelled as ‘at-risk’ learners. Through the creation of a make-believe radio station in the classroom, students developed oral language skills as a necessary precursor for social literacy. They connected reading and writing activities and the simulated classroom radio station promoted the development of learners’ self-efficacy. The students’ use of the learning space as newscasters, hosts, writers and reporters revealed that those who took risks in learning language and literacy in these spaces subverted the label of ‘at-risk-learners’ and repositioned themselves as risk-takers in …

Research Benefits For Scholarly Authors Being Published On A Public Forum, Hunter M. Watson, Brent D. Bowen, Timothy B. Holt, Jacqueline R. Luedtke

Publications

The previous construct of research was focused on social media platforms as a benefactor in broadcasting towards a global audience with non-academic professions. Following along the same ideology, this research directs the attention to a pertained audience in academic profession.

•Embry-Riddle is the host of Scholarly Commons which collects the research of authors (faculty members), and assists in developing a digital portfolio. This portfolio creates metric measurements on a dashboard to indicate where downloads are occurring, and aids in providing current information pertaining to the authors’ publication. •In this case, the publication of the National Airline Quality Rating (AQR) ( …

Assessing Students’ Writing And Public Speaking Self-Efficacy In A Composition And Communication Course, Terrell K. Frey, Jessalyn I. Vallade

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

One avenue for assessing learning involves evaluating self-efficacy, as this psychological beliefis a strong predictor of academic achievement. As such, the purpose of this study was to evaluate writing self-efficacy and public speaking self-efficacy in a composition and communication course. This course is structured to develop both writing and public speaking competencies; the research sought to determine whether students believed they were leaving the course feeling more confident in their capabilities within each respective academic domain. Results (N= 380) from pre- and post-test data suggest that students’ reported writing and public speaking self-efficacy significantly increased over the semester. Additionally, students’ …

Integrating Service-Learning In The Public Speaking Course, Elizabeth A. Munz, Roger D. Gatchet, Matthew R. Meier

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This best-practices article endorses incorporating service-learning into the foundational public speaking course. The article explains connections between service-learning and the rhetorical tradition, highlights pedagogical approaches that would benefit from a service-learning component, and discusses the benefits of service-learning for community partners and students. The remainder of the article focuses on how to implement servicelearning in a public speaking course, including reflection and assessment recommendations.

Life Is A Lab: Developing A Communication Research Lab For Undergraduate And Graduate Education, Autumn P. Edwards, Chad Edwards, Patric R. Spence

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Tips offered center on classroom discourse, curriculum choices, and potential assignments. In this article, we present tips for creating a thriving undergraduate and graduate communication research lab. Based on our experiences developing and co-directing the Communication and Social Robotics Labs (CSRLs), we offer 10 best practices for acquiring resources and recognition, building a strong lab community, and attaining faculty and student goals for scholarship and beyond. Our overarching approach is framed by Dewey’s (1916) pragmatist educational metaphysic, which stresses student- and subject-centered learning, enlarging experiences, and the co-construction of meaning and knowledge. Although our labs are focused on human-machine communication …