Power, Privilege and Public Persuasion: Storytelling as a Tool for Change
Every day, those with social power have opportunities to drive decisions that impact organizations, individuals, and the public at large. How successful they are rests in large part on their ability to effectively use power, influence, and persuasion to move individuals to “think, say, or act” in a way that benefits their perspective / POV. This course, led by guest lecturer David Simmonds, focused on both the theory and practice of persuasion as a tool for change and examined persuasion and how we are persuaded. We explored the impact of advertising and political communications on ideology and everyday life.
Through class reflections and the preparation of a final assignment we looked at how to apply tools as we considered techniques of marketing/advertising persuasion and the ways in persuasion functions politically and through corporate marketing and communications.
The final Campaign Projects were done in small groups of 3 or 4 persons. Students researched, developed, and wrote a strategic communications plan for a public persuasion campaign. Students chose a non-profit organization, NGO, business, or corporation and proposed a campaign to promote a product, service, or mission.
These are the final Campaign Projects:
Professor David Simmonds
SASAH's 2017 Cohort