All Stories

Professor Colleen Palmer’s Colleen Palmer Colleen Palmer Great Idea for Teaching (GIFT) submission has been accepted for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 2022 Conference.

The idea has been implemented in the Crisis Communication (CDM 3810) classroom over the past two years.

Crises hit organizations quickly and need fast responses in order to meet the public’s expectations and needs. In order to “train” for this type of experience, a Crisis Exchange Program has been developed by Prof. Palmer and Professor Kalah Kemp from College of the Ozarks.

Twice a semester, a crisis is introduced to the students at both colleges on the same day. Students are given the real-life crisis and must act as a Crisis Communication Team to come up with a media release, social media posts, and a spokesperson video. The students have one class period to pull their responses together. Each class’s responses are then shared with the other college in order to receive feedback and critique one another’s responses. Crisis Communication Theory, Situational Crisis Communication Theory, and The Spider Web of Thought Leadership are used during this exercise.

Sponsoring Department, Office, or Organization:

Communications and Digital Media Department