COMM-447 Multicultural Strategic Communication Campaigns (3)

As U.S. demographics are rapidly changing, strategic communication campaigns must consider the importance of reaching multicultural and diverse audiences. This course helps students understand how to communicate more authentically and sustainably with diverse audiences in the United States. Students examine media representations of diverse groups and how they impact strategic communication, consider communication theories that explore persuasion to various audiences and whether they apply to multiple identities, and analyze a variety of multicultural communication case studies including those focused on public health, political participation, corporate advocacy and brand promotion, social marketing, and internal communication. The course relies on multicultural audience research, communication theories, and case studies to understand how the rapidly changing U.S. demographics are affecting strategic communication thinking and practices. The course encourages students to think beyond the traditional segmentation of publics into single-identity groups (e.g., the Latinx market or the LGBTQ market) to appreciate the heterogeneity within these groups, power differentials inherent in the field, and its effects on communication strategies. To this end, the course also explores how strategic communicators (re)create individual and group identities, as well as how publics interact with organizations and the media to promote their own identities. The course particularly focuses on race/ethnicity, gender, social class and sexual orientation. AU Core Integrative Requirement: Diversity and Equity. Crosslist: COMM-647. Usually Offered: spring. Grading: A-F only. Restriction: minimum 2.5 GPA.