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Question for October 1 Class

From the explosion of media interest over the past couple of years, you would think that Climate Change is a new scientific discovery. However, the scientific community has been aware of the issue for decades, and there have been few credible scientists who are skeptical about climate change for some time. Your question has two parts First, drawing only from Creighton's explanation of how the media works, describe how it could be possible that the media might have played a role in delaying public recognition of this threat to civilization (perhaps with a little help from Exxon/Mobil and the Competitive Enterprise Institute…). Second, if you were the leader of an environmental advocacy organization and wanted to publicize the risks posed by climate change, describe what you might do to get the Editor of the Roanoke Times to assign a writer to the topic, as well as write it in a way that suited your group.

Meetings Bloody Meetings

Hi all,

During class yesterday, some of you expressed interest in seeing a video about meeting methods that I had accessed.

I had done a quick search for these videos, having heard about them years before, because I felt that we needed some other approach to understanding meeting methods - that my straight powerpoint-driven lecture wasn't doing the trick.

I've had a a look at these videos now, and think that they might work So I'm sending you the links to them, in the hope that some of you take some time (four videos, about an hour total) to watch some or all of them, and advise me on whether they are worth showing the next time I teach this class.

They are about as funny as this kind of thing can be, since they were written and acted by John Cleese, of those old Monty Python TV shows/movies and star of stage and screen. My concern is that they are targeted at a business audience, and may not translate fully to our interest in community involvement, or might not be interesting.

They are streamed from a website that is trying to sell them to corporate trainers - hence the enormous fee. The streamed versions are the same as the ones they sell, except having "preview" on the screen, which is only a little distracting.

See what you think, and please get back to me. I'll post this on my blog as well - you can comment on my blog. I will award those who do provide a thoughtful review of the entire set with extra credit equiv. to one blog post. Plus, I think you will learn something extremely valuable from these videos.

(note that the links are located halfway down the page, in red below orange type that says "click here", and are called "online previews":

http://www.rctm.com/Products/celebritiesgurus/johncleese/5618.htm

http://www.rctm.com/Products/celebritiesgurus/johncleese/5626.htm

http://www.rctm.com/Products/celebritiesgurus/johncleese/5605.htm

Regards,

Prof. B

Question for 10/17 Class On Participation Techniques

This week's question takes off on some themes that came out during your blog group discussions during last class, considering whether certain publicity approaches in Homan and the CEI readings were manipulative or dishonest.

Two weeks ago, we read in Vaneklausen's essay that "hidden power" was the ability to exercise influence by controlling who gets to the decision-making table and what gets on the agenda. The Hewlett-Packard case for today (Creighton's final reading) provides a good example of this – affordable housing advocates, who are portrayed as pesky interlopers, are effectively marginalized by Creighton's canny public participation strategy (p.s. if you don't agree with my interpretation, please write your opinion in the blog!). Lets have a go at exercising "hidden power" through public participation – take your pick to be either a force for change or an agent for the status quo:

Pick a (somewhat) controversial topic involving a community of your choice, and, drawing a range of specific approaches from this week's reading, design a public meeting that is intended to either minimize the ability of the community to organize and express its will, or to maximize it.

Discussion Question For 9/10 (and reminders)

The weekly assignment is:

1. Pick some specific reasons why you would want to convey some information about this issue to either your supporters, your target/response community, or the general public (see Homan). Be specific.

2. Define, in general terms how would you would get through to this audience (or as Smith calls them, this "market). Here is a place where the principles that address human behavior in the Smith reading would come in handy, particularly the idea of "values laddering".

3. Finally, define a medium and message that would work to convey this information to your chosen audience (see Homan). If you chose an information outlet you can't control, how would you succeed in using it (see Homan)?