In her chapter for the book Citizenship & Advocacy in Technical Communication, Sarah Warren-Riley argues for the use of social media in the classroom as a way to teach students how to critique the messaging they see and how to advocate for themselves and others. While Warren-Riley is focused on the technical/professional communication classroom, her ideas are more broadly applicable and can be integrated into the BizCom pedagogy with some creative repurposing of existing teaching materials.
When teaching, I structure my lessons to students by stressing the idea of Narrative: that business communication is, in effect, a story that they’re telling whenever they create business documentation. Social media messaging fits neatly into this theme, I feel, because it encourages students to critically examine the stories that are being told to them.
Telling stories, and understanding the world as a story, is, I believe, hard-wired into our collective human DNA. We live in a world that is, essentially, lacking a cohesive narrative. Still, it’s how we relate to each other and to our environment, so understanding how it functions is key for success in the field of communication. Social media is no different. As a form of communication, it presents powerful, persuasive narratives that we barely recognize because it’s so pervasive. To give students tools to deal with social media messaging is a form of social justice advocacy on the part of the instructor.
Once students have a better understanding of how to critique and evaluate what they’re being told on social media, they are equipped to critically examine all types of messaging. At this critical juncture, then, the pedagogy of the classroom should shift to advocacy. How can we prepare students to engage with these messages on behalf of themselves and others? One way to bake this into our BizCom lessons is to have students give presentations about what they’ve learned about corporate media messaging and how it affects members of their peer groups.
As a feminist teacher, as someone who is interested in finding ways to help my students push back against the dominant narratives that structure their lives, I find that Warren-Riley’s ideas are an excellent starting point for re-thinking how the BizCom classroom operates, a way to turn a sophomore-level required class into a point of growth and change for the students who must attend.
Hi barbara,
I love how you blend story-telling and advocacy. Corporate media messaging is so rich that having students analyze the genre of ‘corporate media’ is such a great way to give them the tools to think critically about their environment.
Hi Barbara! I like that you tell your students that business communication is a form of storytelling. Since we both talk about the importance of LinkedIn in our unit 1 project, I think it’s important to note that this could be a good starting point for bringing up advocacy in social media. This is a nice first step, or transition, into advocacy without rewriting a lot of the current curriculum. You can also have students compare the information they put on their LinkedIn account vs. their personal social media accounts and have them analzye what those differences mean.
I love how you frame your lessons in the context of narratives Barbra! It really sets the tone and ideas for class. Social media and corporate messaging fight great into this theme because every message is a story. I like how you tie this back to students’ critical thinking!
Stressing the narrative to students is such an important idea that I absolutely love. Especially since so many narratives are not being told, this turns into advocacy for the stories we are not hearing. I have yet to teach BizComm but I think getting the students to view the stories being told and the stories not being told is a great way to instill rhetorical lenses in the classroom.
I completely agree, Barb! When I was doing my lesson on narrative in sci comm I taught my students the ‘hack’ of the hero’s journey formula. Story-telling is the way that humans understand and related to reality.