COMM 3318 - Facilitating Public Deliberation

Credits: 3 Class: 3 Lab: 0
Prerequisite(s): 3 hours of COMM and junior standing.
This course emphasizes theory and practice in moderating and recording public forums in a variety of civic settings. Deliberation is an approach to politics in which citizens, not just experts or politicians, are involved in public decision-making and community problem solving. Working with trained facilitators who utilize a wide variety of specific deliberative techniques, citizens come together and consider relevant facts from multiple points of view; converse with one another to think critically about the various options before them; enlarge their perspectives, opinions, and understandings; and ultimately seek to come to some conclusion for action in the form of a reasoned public judgment.