When communication majors began enrolling for Spring 2026 classes, they encountered a new offering: Environmental Communication. Structured as a second block online class, this was the first time Environmental Communication had been offered as part of the communication studies curricula.
The course is another choice within the fully online option of the communication studies program, according to Senior Instructor Jay Howard. Its purpose is to help students understand the role of communication in negotiating the relationship between people and the environment.
Howard, who teaches in the Department of Communication, Media, Journalism and Film, created the class as a special topics course. He was thrilled when 29 students enrolled, a number just a bit over the class limit.
Most of the students were upper level communications majors, Howard said. “But we did have people from other majors as well find their way into the class, which I was happy to see. And if I get to teach the class again, I’d love to continue to expand and have people enrolled from all across the university.”
Consumers of environmental messaging
Throughout the course, Howard stressed to students how all members of a society are “consumers” of environmental communication. While not everyone will become a public official or climate activist, he noted, people engage in and consume environmental communication daily.
“We need to be able to critically evaluate [this communication] and have some tools for knowing whether the messaging coming at us is accurate or not,” Howard said. “See what they’re trying to get us to do, and why, and whose agenda is being served.”
Because environmental issues tend to affect entire communities and societies, not just individuals, the topic itself can have a wide reach and impact.
“It’s big, it crosses boundaries, has all kinds of stakeholders that all have to cooperate,” Howard said. “There’s a collective action problem. And when you’re trying to coordinate action, you have to use communication.”
[Read more…] about Environmental Communication class highlights university’s public affairs mission