From the Drinking Gourd to #BlackTwitter:

Social Communication for Social Change

Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies

University of Virginia

Spring 2015

 

Instructor: Professor Dowell-Vest

Email: td2k@virginia.edu

Course Meeting: Wed 6:30pm - 9pm

Location: New Cabell Hall 383

Office Hours: Wed 3pm-4pm

Office: Carter G. Woodson Institute / Minor Hall Office 107

 

Course Description

This interdisciplinary and multimedia course explores the origins, dynamics, and consequences of social media involvement/inclusion in social and civil rights movements. This course will cover the history and importances of evolving technology (astronomy, telecommunication, television, internet, etc) and its applications by disenfranchised groups from antebellum America to the present day.

 

Course Objective

This course plans to examine the following concepts and questions:

1. What constitutes a social/civil rights movement?

2. In what way does social communication play a part in starting, maintaining and ending a social/civil rights movements?

3. How does social media/social communication contribute to change?

4. How does the various disciplines of the humanities (art, music, theater, film, etc) contribute to the life and effectiveness of a social movement?

 

 

Course Activity/Project Plan

Course readings and lectures drawn from case studies on civil rights, women's rights, gay rights, the environment, African and African American relations, globalization, apartheid, democratization, religious and political affiliation, and peace.

 

Individual assignments and group projects will require students to contact and collaborate with people and organizations outside of the University of Virginia community. Using elements of social media/social networking (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc) students will have to forge relationships and network with people beyond our immediate reach (i.e. A group presentation on Ebola may include the 3-4 students in the class, covering elements of the topic in the class, while the required remote group member may be a student in Cameroon or a doctor ‘on the ground’ in Liberia who will participate in the presentation via Skype, Facetime, Oovoo, etc).

 

Course Outcome

The outcome of this course will be an encouragement to the students to engage in the global community and participate in social networking and social change with purpose. This course is designed to give students a historical context for the creativity and ingenuity of all human and how we use that creativity and expression for change.

 

Evaluation:

150 points – 15 Blog Assignments (10 points each)

125 points – Student Project #1: Secret Code Scavenger Hunt

125 points – Student Project #2: Short Documentary

125 points – Student Project #3: Student Presentation

125 points – Student Project #4: Group Presentation and Social Communication Campaign

200 Points – Mid Term Exam

150 points – Attendance (10 points per session)

 

 

TOTAL:  1000 points

 

Grading Scale:

A = 900-1000 points

B = 800-899 points

C = 700-799 points

D = 600-699 points

F = 599 or fewer points

 

 

Course Calendar
15 Week Schedule

 

Week 1
LECTURE: Fundamentals of Communication /  Examine how technology and social change work together

READING for Next Lecture:
Walter Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm methodology
Walter Fisher, Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action (Pages provided)

 

 

Week 2
LECTURE: Examine how social communication, technology and social change are connected.
Discuss Walter Fisher’s Five Elements of Human Communication as Narration as they relate to Social Change

READING for Next Lecture:
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad Secret Codes
(University of Massachusetts) http://www.harriet-tubman.org/underground-railroad-secret-codes/

The Spirituals Project - Sweet Chariot: The Story of the Spirituals
(The University of Denver)  http://spiritualsproject.org/sweetchariot/

Introduction to Black Studies by Mulana Karenga
pages Definition of Enslavement 115-132; Black Music: The Spirituals page 405-406 (Pages provided)

 

 

Week 3
LECTURE: Slavery, Symbols and the Drinking Gourd: Examines how enslaved blacks used symbols, song, storytelling and the stars as a road map to freedom.
Technology Used for Change: Coded Stories and Songs; Astronomy

Student Project #1: Students will be paired in groups of two. Each student must give their partner instructions to a task using only symbols and hidden codes to be deciphered.

 

 

Week 4
Application of Walter Fisher’s 5 tenets to Negro Spirituals and the Abolition of American Slavery

Assess Student Project #1:  Outcome, Areas of Success & Shortcomings

 

READING for Next Lecture:
Black and White TV: African Americans in Television since 1948
J. Fred MacDonald (Northeastern Illinois University)
Chapter 2: Blacks in TV in the Age of the Civil Rights Movement
1957-1970
http://jfredmacdonald.com/bawtv/bawtvp2.htm

 

 

Week 5
LECTURE: Road to Selma: The Day the World Joined the Civil Rights Movement:  Examines significance of the March 7, 1965, “Bloody Sunday” and how the television broadcast of that day changed how Americans viewed the Civil Rights Movement.

Technology Used for Change: Television

Video: Eyes on the Prize: Part 6 Bridge To Freedom http://youtu.be/RulJ1UHD3JM

Video: March on Washington  http://youtu.be/_c2lLYuYU1I

Student Project #2: Students will be paired into groups of three. They will select a HISTORICAL TOPIC RESEARCH (Topic must be pre date 1980). Each group will be responsible for creating a short documentary (5 -10 mins) on their topic. The class will create a youtube channel and share the short films online.

 

 

Week 6
Application of Walter Fisher’s 5 tenets to The Civil Rights Movement and the significance of television.

In Class Workshop Time for Student Project #2

 

 

Week 7
Mid Term Exam / Presentation of Student Project #2

LISTEN for next Lecture:
NPR: Can Hip-Hop Change The Style of Politics?
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/16/145185983/can-hip-hop-change-the-style-of-politics

NPR: Political Activism and the Hip Hop Culture
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4246077

 

READING for Next Lecture:
Fight The Power: Spike Lee on “Do The Right Thing”
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/fight-the-power-spike-lee-on-do-the-right-thing-20140620

 

 

Week 8
LECTURE:  Hip Hop the Police!: Examines how the Hip Hop culture of the 1980’s/early 1990’s shed light on social inequality and injustice as it relates to law enforcement. From NWA’s “F*ck the Police” to Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing” we will look at the tumultuous relationship between the Black youth and law enforcement and how it was depicted through music and filming OWNED by the people it reflected.

Technology Used for Change: Hip Hop (Music & Film)

Watch in Class: Spike Lee’s “Do The Right Thing”

Student Project #3: Each student will examine a song or film clip created between 1980-2000. Through the lens of entrepreneurship, artistry and politics, each student will present their clip and how effective that work was in bringing about social change.

 

 

Week 9
Application of Walter Fisher’s 5 tenets to the Hip Hop Culture/Politics for Social Change

WATCH In Class: “Uprising: Hip Hop and the LA Riots (John Singleton)

 

 

Week 10:
Presentation of Student Project #3

READ for next lecture:
Black Twitter: A virtual community ready to hashtag out a response to cultural issues The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/black-twitter-a-virtual-community-ready-to-hashtag-out-a-response-to-cultural-issues/2014/01/20/41ddacf6-7ec5-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84_story.html

The Black Twitter Project: USC Annenberg Innovation Lab (University of Southern California) http://www.annenberglab.com/projects/dsail-black-twitter-project

 

 

Week 11
LECTURE:  #BlackTwitter: The Peoples’ Report and Cyber Activism. Examines the use of social media and the immediacy of news “from the ground”. From the revolution in Egypt to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, to the revolution in Ferguson, Missouri, this unit will look at the use of Facebook, Twitter and how this technology delivered news of these events globally.

Technology Used for Change: Cyber Activism

 

 

Week 12
Application of Walter Fisher’s 5 tenets to the #BlackTwitter and #BlackLivesMatter Cyber Activism Movements

 

 

Week 13-14
Student Project #4: The students will be put into groups of 3 or 4. They will select a CURRENT TOPIC of research of choice (racial equality, LGBTQ marriage equality, women’s rights/equal pay, etc). The class will create a short documentary on the subject. With each of the short films, each group will create a poll form for viewers to answer poll questions and voice their positions on the various topics. The group will present their findings/results in this presentation. A final group member will be required to join their presentation via Skype/Facetime/Oovoo/Google Hangout and participate in their presentation live.

 

Week 15 Final Exam

 

Weekly Assignment:
The class will create a running blog. The blog will chronicle how each student see the world from the perspective of the various units in the class. The students will be required to submit a 300 word blog post weekly.

 

This interdisciplinary and multimedia course explores the origins, dynamics, and consequences of social media involvement/inclusion in social and civil rights movements. This course will cover the history and importances of evolving technology (astronomy, telecommunication, television, internet, etc) and its applications by disenfranchised groups from antebellum America to the present day.

The outcome of this course will be an encouragement to the students to engage in the global community and participate in social networking and social change with purpose. This course is designed to give students a historical context for the creativity and ingenuity of all human and how we use that creativity and expression for change.