COM 316: EMERGENCY AND DISASTER COMMUNICATION: HUMANITY IN A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE
Description
The purpose of this course is to develop an applied humanistic understanding of communication and life skills for high-stress situations. Using the apocalypse as a metaphor for all-hazards scenarios, historical narratives of disaster and films and novels in the zombie genre are used to discuss emergency preparedness and survival strategies. Students will demonstrate an ability to analyze the rhetorical situation of apocalypse, engage in emergency and disaster planning, response, and recovery assignments, activities, and exercises including developing emergency evacuation plans, preparing emergency kits and bug-out bags, and exercising medical triage and first aid.Learning Outcomes
• To demonstrate their ability to present and critically evaluate different approaches to emergency and disaster planning, response, and recovery through oral and written argumentation.• To demonstrate an understanding of different philosophical, linguistic, and historical schools of thought regarding communication ethics in emergency/ disaster planning, response, and recovery.
• To demonstrate the ability to identify the values and presuppositions that underlie the worldviews of different cultures and peoples, through considering the history of vulnerable populations in a(n) emergency/ disaster as represented in film, historical narratives, literature and survival scenarios.
• To identify the practical applications and ethical implications of emergency and disaster planning, response, and recovery strategies.
• To demonstrate the ability to evaluate self and team performance in survival scenarios and emergency response exercises through after-action reports.