The term pap (approximately 4000 words) will focus upon a particular NGO or Terrorist Group and examine the organizational structures and strategies the organization has chosen for organizing, mobilizing, communicating with members, networking, and achieving its goals. You will find it useful to think about the five questions above and to consider the audience(s) with whom the organization communicates- publics, governments, and other organizations (e.g. terrorist groups, NGOs, political parties etc.), as well as its internal organizational audience, while evaluating their strategies.
You may choose either the APA or the Chicago Manual of Style as your bibliographic style as long as you are consistent throughout. If you have second (or third) language skills, you might consider examining organizations whose “home” base is not within the English-speaking world. This might prove very enlightening when thinking about global connections and communication strategies.
In the final part of the course, we will consider the management of these organizations and their continuing struggles to recruit, fund and sustain their activities.
Throughout we are interested in five key questions:
1. What are the most effective actors and institutions for communicating new ideas, new attitudes, and new behaviors
2. What factors determine an actor’s receptivity to new ideas, new attitudes, and new behaviors, do strategies and tactics vary across audiences, and do strategies and tactics change by actors?
3. What factors determine the capacity of an organization to promote its goals?
4. What are the most effective messages to promote new ideas, new attitudes, and new behaviors, and how do these messages change as norms change?
5. How do NGOs and Terrorist Organizations retain their credibility (with their supporters and prospective supporters) and how effective are they in using the resources they raise and command?
The term pap is described on the syllabus (Modules > General). Please use the five course questions listed on the syllabus to guide your research and writing.
