Using the material from Rogers, particularly chapters 4 - 9 and 11, you should create an innovation to study. Specifically, each student is charged with creating a communication program that is intended to change the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, or values of a target group. The Library button in the left menu may provide you with ideas and potential sources. Be sure to use the Writing Resources also found in the left menu to aid you in your writing.

Areas Your Paper Should Cover About Your Communication Program:

• The specific content of the program along with the intended delivery system (one-on-one communication, lecture, interactive activities, mass media, print media, etc.).

• The target audience for the messages should be described as well as the planned change or outcome that is expected.

• Illustrate the concepts from Rogers with specific details from research sources.

• In discussing adopters, be sure to look at the networks that might be used and also indicate the number and describe the potential adopters.

• Since you are proposing an innovation, you will not know whether it will ultimately succeed or fail, and you certainly won't know what the long-range consequences will be. You should predict what you think will happen and give a fairly extensive rationale for your forecasts.

• In addition to materials from Chapter 4, you should use concepts from other chapters where appropriate. Concepts that may be useful would be:
  • adopter category
  • change agent roles
  • diffusion networks
  • innovation attributes
  • opinion leadership
  • factors in change agent success
  • centralized and decentralized systems
  • reinvention
  • various types of consequences.

Completed papers should contain these elements:

• graduate student papers should be 12-16 pages.
• All papers are to be typed 12-point font, Times or Times New Roman.
• Follow APA format.
• References:
  • 15 minimum for graduates.
  • All sources used in the paper must be peer reviewed by experts. All books published by major publishing houses, and scholarly journals are peer reviewed.