Communication

The Global Response explainer. (10%) A brief but thorough PP or Prezi that lays out how the world has reacted (or not) to your crisis. What type of news media coverage or social media was there or not there? What are UN agencies doing? The EU? The US? Major humanitarian aid or human right organizations? Who is responding to the crisis and how? Use words and images and/or can do a voice over in Voice Thread. Make sure everything is attributed in both in-text and listed at the end. http://library.concordia.ca/help/citing/apa.php   Include: A.    Title page. (Your name, class, date, assignment (Global Reponses to XXXX, something simple and direct) B.    A very brief summary description of the crises using the terminology we have read and discussed in class. C.    Who and how is the international community responding to this crisis? What has been done to assist people directly impacted by the crisis? Humanitarian aid? Asylum? Refugee camps? Negotiations? Condemnation? AND who is doing this? UN? US? Relief or humanitarian organization? D.     Your List of Works Cited. Not everything you have seen but what you relied on for this response explainer.  https://new.library.arizona.edu/research/citing/guide  or E.    Post your Global Response Explainer in the week No. 7a Discussion forum when it is up. Then you will be asked to comment on two other colleague’s findings. Week 8: Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 11:30 p.m. Field work!  (5%) (Report of up to 1,000 words) You are going to cover or conduct research around your crisis! You will be going for 10 days. You have backgrounded yourself on the crisis and you know it well. Now you have to prepare to do the actual reporting or research and do it safely. Write a report and address these questions (depending on where you are going – you do not have to answer all of these): 1.) Preparations. Where are you going? Where do you fly into? Where will you stay? Do you need a fixer or a translator – who might that be? Where do you need to travel to within the area (for example, a border city or a refugee camp?) What do you need to do to prepare? What are your health and safety concerns and how will you address them? What do you have to take and what do you have to leave behind? What do you have to have ready on the ground for when you arrive (Translator? Fixer? Car – regular or 4-wheel? Driver or can you drive? Hotel room or guest house or friend? Booked?) Permits, visas and permissions needed?  What equipment (cameras, tripods, etc.) do you need? Take or rent there? 2.) Sources for research or reporting. Who will be your sources? Remember sources are documents, representatives from organizations and your own observation. List them from all three groups. What in-depth and high-quality articles or reports from earlier assignments will you rely on for factual background information and upon which to base your questions. List as you would in an annotated List of References and include a URL if there is one. Who do you need to interview on the ground there? Officials? People effected by the crisis? Aid workers or officials? Other journalists? Other researchers? U.N. officials? Emergency agencies with the government? Who do you need for background? Who to explain? Who to serve as examples of the problem? Compile a list of questions you want answered and specifically who you think can answer them. What you think you need to observe there? Where do you need to go? How will you get there? Permissions? Officials?

Students should write a 2-page research plan. The plan describes how you test the validity of a theory or theories, without actually carrying out the plan. It is only the description of the test, not actually doing it. You should describe the theory, the major concepts, and what do they do so that readers know what you are testing. Then you explain how you want to test it. You can use questionnaires, interviews, personal experiences, or cite many earlier cases, books, research findings to support your research.  You can write: At a social, how you observe a stranger, what qualities can you find out? What info can you not get from observation? Then, you ask someone about the person, using active method to get info. Maybe you get on social media for info. (extra active method). How will you contact the person? What info you want to disclose, and why? How will you further or terminate the contact? …….. Basically, you write a detailed description of how you want to test a theory, the expected outcome of the test.  In another example: There are endless signs in daily life, a bus stop, a monument, a national flag, a national anthem, a certification, an emblem, an award, a road sign, a NBA ring…… they are all signifiers, you can easily identify the signified. Use examples to show the validity of the semiotics. You can do research and find out the origins of some signs (denotative) and the signified, then explain the connotative meanings of these signs, like the yellow ribbon example. Then you talk about how people or media use signs to express meaning to show the theory of semiotics works.

This semester we have looked at Intercultural Communication using a critical intercultural communication perspective. A critical intercultural communication perspective gives us a space to confront and intervene in key power challenges in the intercultural world and to make our world a better and more just one for all cultural groups. The notion of using our intercultural knowledge and applying it to transform our world in terms of dismantling power inequalities beyond the classroom is praxis. As critical intercultural scholars, we should strive to engage in praxis to positively impact the intercultural world we are in. Therefore, the goal of this paper/project is to employ the ACT Framework as a way to engage in praxis and positively impact the intercultural world we are in.   Assignment Objectives: In this assignment, you will be able to: Practice employing the ACT Framework for Intercultural Justice to a specific case study. Deeply examine an important intercultural issue problem or scenario through a critical intercultural communication perspective. Apply course concepts from all modules in this course and all of Halualani’s chapters to this project.  Design responsive solutions and or ideas to create positive intercultural change. Reflect on YOUR role in creating intercultural change in the world. INTRODUCTION: Select your intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma. Identify a specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma related to disproportionate power relations and/or structures of power–one that you are passionate about examining and designing solutions for change.  Introduce the specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma related to disproportionate power relations and or structures of power that you are focused on. Discuss why you chose this specific issue and what it means to you. Examples of specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma related to disproportionate power relations and or structures of power, can be (but are not limited to) as follows: Negative intercultural relationships between two specific groups; Intercultural conflict among specific racial/ethnic, religious, and or cultural groups; Subordination of women in a specific cultural group; Gender experiences within a cultural group; GLBTQIA experiences within a cultural group; Immigrant groups in a community/country; Lack of representation of a specific group in an industry or profession (will need to address the issue of historical access); Lack of representation of a specific group in the media (will need to address the issue of historical access); Marginalization of specific identity backgrounds (disabilities, sexual orientation, gender, race/ethnicity, among others) in education, media, politics, or community life; Subordination of generational status within a cultural group; Limited exposure to particular cultural groups and identities in education, organization life; Framing of specific cultural groups or identity background in popular culture; Dismantling colonialist or dominant frameworks in the educational, media, legal, tourism, governmental, and popular culture contexts; Unequal intercultural relations as brought on by globalization (uneven flow of meanings, money, goods, and people); Climate issues that affect cultural groups as brought on by global and economic forces; Legal framings of cultural groups and or intercultural issues (domestic violence, hate crimes, genocide, sexual consent, freedoms and rights, embodied rights, the right to marry); Cultural representational issues and dilemmas for a specific cultural group; Topics that relate to and are captured in any of the Halualani chapters or in our course modules; And many, many more Il. ACT Analysis A.  Awareness and Agency: This step addresses the capability to act and make a difference against a structure of power or practice of domination. Agency speaks to the need to continually increase our awareness of the ways in which power shapes culture, our identities, and experiences. In this section you will do the following:  Discuss and explain the importance of this specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma related to disproportionate power relations and or structures of power. Why is this topic of yours so important to focus on in this project? Explain ALL the main details (what, who, when, where, how, why, all key detailS that are needed) of the specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma related to disproportionate power relations and or structures of power that you are focusing on for this project. Identify a minimum of 4 course concepts from our modules or the Halualani textbook you’ll be using to critically look at your issue. B. Contemplate, Consider, and Critique: This step seeks to consider, question and critique invisible dimensions of contexts of power BEFORE one acts. In this section, please provide a deep unpacking of your specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma in terms of the following: What are the key issues, problematics, and points of tension related to power and culture? Which power interests and positionalities are involved in your specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma?  Detail these. What constitutes the “problem,” “conflict,” or “dilemma”?  Elaborate on this and flesh it out. What are the key obstacles in addressing your specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma?  What leverage points exist at all in addressing your specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma Be sure you apply the four (4) course concepts you identified in section A into your analysis. C. Critique: This step is an extension of the “B” step to critically evaluate your specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma. In this section, please consider the following questions in your critique: What is your “take”/opinion/stance on your specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma? How do you view your specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma?  How do you see and understand it? What are the most difficult areas of your specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma to confront and address? How are you positioned in relation to your specific intercultural community issue/problem/conflict/dilemma? D. Thoughtful Individual and/or Collective Action: (you can address INDIVIDUAL or COLLECTIVE ACTION) In this step you will spend some time reflecting on the best course of action we can take INDIVIDUALLY and/or COLLECTIVELY to address and be agents of change to structures of power or dominant power interest. In this section, please provide some PRACTICAL INDIVIDUAL AND/OR COLLECTIVE ACTION STEPS that can be practically taken. You can provide your ideas OR identify and present what YOU are INDIVIDUALLY or COLLECTIVELY doing to positively impact the intercultural world you are living in.  In your reflection please be to: Consider specific INDIVIDUAL and/or COLLECTIVE acts Discuss how it will affect others and how it will resist a dominant power. Examples of INDIVIDUAL ACTION Participating in interactions with culturally different persons and reflecting on the role of power Initiating conversations and discussions with people from different social locations Seeking out knowledge and perspectives on status quo or dominant ideas Posing new questions about cultural groups and structures of power; questions that have never crossed your mind Examples of  COLLECTIVE ACTION Creating your own group or community to address or challenge a status quo structure or practice of power Convening a critical mass of individuals to work together on a specific cause or need in society Having your student club or organization take up a racial or global justice cause Joining a grassroots group that works on behalf of disenfranchised people  III. CONCLUSION: In your conclusion please describe what you learned about yourself, others, and the role of power in intercultural communication as a result of taking this class AND through writing this paper.. PAPER GUIDELINES: Min 1800-2000 words, typed, double-spaced, one-inch margins and 10-12 point font.  Please organize your paper by using the standard paper formatting structure (introduction, body, conclusion).  Please include 3 additional outside resources. Please use standard MLA/APA format when citing your sources.

This major paper is meant to reveal your ability to study the communication tendencies of a culture, interpret and describe those tendencies according to cultural characteristics discussed in class and then compare the communication of your culture to this particular culture.  The papers ought to be around 1800 words and cite at least 8 different sources.  You must have at least 2 scholarly article citations and at least 2 citations from books and/or our textbook.  Probably the rest will be web sources.  In the paper, present the culture and give necessary background information.  This section should be less than a quarter of the paper, but needs to let the reader know what the culture is, where it is located, who the people are (any tribal or micro cultural qualities), what language(s) is used, relevant history of the culture, and the most salient qualities of the culture.  The next section, at least half the paper, will be about the characteristics of the culture and its elements and how they are transformed into communication choices in the culture.  You may choose to deal with many of the culture characteristics, contexts, values, and codes that we have talked about in class, but you may also specialize on just a couple of characteristics (collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, etc.) or values (family, nature, etc.) Describe the relevant cultural characteristics and then demonstrate their communication counterparts in terms of roles, and verbal and nonverbal code evidence.  Pictures, stories, experiences, and related artifacts could be very useful in presenting the communication counterparts to the characteristics of the culture.  All of this is most efficiently organized to flow with the paper’s final section.  The last section consists of your comparing and contrasting the culture under study with your own.  What are the most striking similarities and differences in terms of the communication and meaning process between the two cultures?  Where will the two cultures probably be able to communication smoothly with the fewest problems in terms of misinterpretations? (There may actually be no such situations.)   Conversely where might the problems be?  What will one culture do or assume that will be quite different, hurtful, and insulting to the other?  From these analyses what do people in your culture need to be careful about and how do they need to change so as to get the most from intercultural communication with the culture you have presented?  In terms of citations, when a source is cited, it must include either the page number (in the case of paper sources) or the paragraph number (in the case of a web pager) where the relevant information came from.  Further, no more than 15% of the paper can be verbatim material from other source, and all of this must be appropriately quoted.

drawing on the theoretical content seen in the lectures and engaging critically and reflexively with oneself, produce a 2,500-word essay that evidences a clear comprehension of the concepts seen in the module. The essay can be written in a non-traditional way and include literary writing styles such as poetry, spoken word, etc. The written work should at least explore two topics seen in class. For example precarity and cruel optimism, or postfeminism and nationalism.

Are social media platforms improving or worsening the work of journalists? Discuss

Agenda-Setting is a political communication theory. The basic assumption lies that the media cannot tell the audience what to think, but they can tell the audience what to think about. People can still think in their own ways for the best interests for themselves, but the media can set the topics of thinking. Journalism professors Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw find in many political events, like Watergate, Vietnam War and presidential elections, the media bring up the topics, focus on the events first, then the audience talk and become concerned on these same topics and event second. They reach the conclusion that media have the function of setting up public agenda. In their own word: “The mass media have the ability to transfer the salience of issues on their news agenda to the public agenda.” McCombs and Shaw found in many elections that the topics the media talk about and the voters’ concerns are identical during political campaigns. Media talk about unemployment, pollution, economy, and the most voters would also think these topics are important. But what causes what? Media cause voters to think this way, or voters think this way, and media report voters’ thinking. Researchers found from historical events that media report peaks of topics come before the public interests on the topics. For example: The media reports of the Vietnam War peaked in 1966, the number of American troops in Vietnam increased until 1968. Who is most affected by the media agenda? The two extremes on the political spectrum are not easily affected. Trump’s supporters or opponents are not affected because they both have predetermined their views and positions. People willing to let the media shape their thinking have a high need for orientation. They have relevance in the topics, but they are uncertain about them. Framing: The central organizing idea for news content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion, and elaboration.” The media have the ability to choose facts, make them bigger or smaller through emphasis and elaboration, or exclusion. Who sets the agenda? The researchers found that a small number of media conglomerates set the agenda. They include CNN, ABC, Fox, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and a few more. Today people may add social media like Facebook and Twitter…… Some politicians set the agenda. In presidential elections, candidates campaign and debate on issues and topics. What they say are reported in the media. Public relations professionals may set the agenda. They work for government, cooperation, and special interests groups for their agendas. Interest aggregations can create news: anti-abortion, antiwar, antipollution, black life matters. The recent protest across the country because of the death of Floyd is one example. Special events drive the media agenda. They are so important and so big that media cannot ignore them. For example: 9/11, gulf war, Vietnam War, Pearl Harbor, presidential elections, ……. Discussion questions: 1. Will you please discuss Agenda Setting, your understanding of the theory? 2. Do you think the theory still works in social media age? Do media still set the agenda for the people to think about it, or the trend is changing to a different pattern?

Literature Review The topic, area or issue of intercultural communication at the workplace. The goal is to produce a publishable paper. In addition to engaging in research of secondary sources, the purpose of this assignment is to expose students to writing an academic paper. The paper should be double space, and no longer than 2000 words (excluding reference list, tittle page, appendices, etc.). Remember that this is a research paper therefore proper identification of information sources should be done. Your paper should include a complete reference list (use Harvard system).The grade will be based on a number of factors:1. Organization2. Clarity of expression and style of writing3. Proper usage of academic language4. Final editingComments to be fixed in the draft attached are belowyou need a wider range of references; there are some sequences of paragraphs drawn from only one source.You can solve this by bringing in references to relevant sources that we have covered in the lectures, with some explanation of their relevance.This will double the amount of references, and demonstrate that your work draws from the mainstream of theory and research in the field.You can easily trim some of the textbook-sourced material to make space for this. Not quite clear why you need to problematise diversity, as you point out that it’s already problematic for many organisations. Maybe something like “Challenges to diversity in multi-cultural workplaces; an intercultural communication perspective” might be a closer fit to what you have actually covered in the article. When you include some of the material from the lectures, you could, perhaps, comment on how far you think the theory and research are adequate for the task of understanding the range challenges that you describe.

an analysis of a recent political campaign with a focus of strategies and styles used in the campaign. there should be plenty of specific examples and critique the effectiveness of strategies used. the textbook for this class is: Political Campaign Communication by Robert E. Denton Jr

Please select a professional sports team and research the team’s communication with its publics via social media and other media. What image/identity is the team attempting to create? The assignment shall be presented in the following sections: Background/History of team, Current Image/Brand Goals, Strategies for image building (give examples) and Outcomes. This should be no less than 3,000 words long. I want you all to consider the team colors, logos, management, personnel (players), and brand loyalty through your analysis.