These next few units will take us through some key dimensions of social movements: group communication and identity. Groups are vital parts of social movements and the communication within groups and externally may account for a movement achieving or failing to meet its goals. We will begin with some foundational material in week one and then examine two case studies, Civil Rights Movement Groups and BLM groups in the second two weeks.
These various definitions are important as they work across the various pieces of social movements. Taken together, we are able to more fully understand and explore how rhetoric influences social movements.
Before we continue on, please take the time to read this brief overview of the Communication discipline and Social Movements. Although this class can be taught in numerous ways, I teach this course using a social justice lens. Other scholars (as you'll note in the Scholars section of the article) may teach from a rhetorical position. We may incorporate rhetoric and some of its tools, but we will focus on how social movements use communication to accomplish social justice.
Below is a 2 minute overview of our unit, which ends with the first of our unit assignments.
Objectives
Understand and operationalize "group communication" and its various theories and frameworks; how does the power of group communication aid and constrain social change?
Relatedly, understand how groups aid and constrain the specific social movements of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter
Weekly Materials & Assignments
Week 3 (September 12-18)
Week Three: Group Communication and Social Movements, Foundations
This week we'll be familiarizing ourselves with the myriad of ways group communication aids and, at times, impedes social movements. We'll also read about how "groups" operate in the digital sphere. In each text, focus on the ways communication is foundational to the social movement. Most will be academic texts, but I have also included a few nonacademic texts to round out the set. Pay attention to the connections to the communication scholarship we read.
Practice your best efficient reading, feel free to skim through background material on the specific movement and focus on the parts of each article that focus on group communication. Notice too, where the readings echo and refer to one another (e.g. the four stages of social movements in Isa and Himelboim, 2018).
Group communication is likely new to many of you (it's not my expertise either :)), to familiarize yourself with the subdiscipline of group communication, please watch this short 12 minute lecture by another professor. As you watch, begin to make potential connections to social movements. What are some ways the various ways the communication discipline views groups may be applicable to social movements?
Week Four: Social Movements and Groups: The Civil Rights Movement
I can't think of a Social movement more complex and richly composed of groups than the U. S. Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century. Just take a look at this list from PBS that includes both groups working for and against civil rights. I'd also like to draw your attention to the university student groups listed! Students all over the country (and in the Southern U.S.) worked towards racial equity.
The Civil Rights Movement is also an important site of activist tactics, such as non-violent direct action, which we'll be revisiting later on in the semester. You'll also likely notice some tie-ins with our next unit: identity.
Before we dive deeper into the groups that made up the movement, please take 3 minutes to watch this 3 minute basic history on the Civil Rights Movement for the 50,000 foot view
