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.
Barbara Shaddix 