Communication Studies Rise to Relevance

The Link https://www.huffpost.com/entry/communication-studies-ris_b_6025038

At a college near you, at this very moment, a student is switching their major to
Communication Studies. Number of institutions offering the degree according to a newly
released American Academy of Arts & Sciences Humanities Indicator assessment. From this
Humanities Indicator data it appears Communication Studies may be outperforming its
humanity based peers on several measures.
“In terms of numbers, Communication Studies stood out regarding the amount of
students majoring in the field. It was quite striking when we were crunching the numbers—
how different it seemed in the sheer volume of students. It was much higher than the other
disciplines and was certainly the largest of the disciplines we looked at,” says Robert
Townsend, Director of the Washington Office of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, who led the Humanities Indicators assessment.
In many ways Communication Studies is the right offering at the right time. The
discipline is extremely well positioned as the digital economy, social networking and the
move toward media creation rises to prominence. “I think as students become a little more
careerist they search for a degree that is flexible and adaptable and I think communication
provides for both of those,” says Betsy Bach, Communication Studies Professor at University
of Montana. This seems to be true since current enrolment statistics detail 135,190 juniors
and seniors around the country choosing to pursue Communication Studies. But does this
trend toward a rise in Communication Studies degrees affect other disciplines?
“It used to be that if you wanted to be a journalist you would go and take a journalism
class and get an MA in Journalism. I don’t think that is as likely to happen now, I think there
is a stronger sense that students with Journalism degrees might be more poorly trained in the
end than a Com.Degree or a Com. Degree with a Minor in Economics which prepares you to
nicely operate as a journalist,” says Trevor Parry-Giles, Director of Academic and
Professional Affairs at the NCA and Professor at University of Maryland.
Ethan Scott, a Senior at Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan switched his
major from Pre-Dental to Communication Studies. Scott says, “I have had a lot of
opportunities, and I get contacted all the time from job prospects and they say: I see you are a
Communication Studies Major, I see all the different experiences you have and we would like
to have you in for an interview or send us your full resume. I really do think a lot of it is the
Communication Studies major it allows me to project the best version of myself, knowing
what people are looking for and knowing how people communicate effectively.”
Although growth and popularity may equate to success for the discipline—not all
involved feel Communication Studies is utilizing its unique placement to provide a rigorous
and reaching academic profile. Robert McChesney, believes that the relationship between the
new digital economy and Communication Studies needs to push the discipline further toward
more cutting-edge assessment of key social and political factors. McChesney says, “Ten
years ago the digital revolution provided an opportunity to increase the profile and research in
the field to be much stronger. The discipline could leapfrog from the margins of lightly
regarded marginal. I was hopeful departments would seize the initiative and take advantage of
this to elevate the profile, quality and importance of the research. For the most part I think
many programs have stayed in bureaucratic mode which is do what you have done before,
don’t make waves, draw your pay check, go to sleep at night, and prepare for retirement.”
Braithwaite contrasts McChesney and says, “While we are all anxious to see certain
areas of research grow, it is challenging for any one scholar to be able to take stock of the
breadth of an already broad discipline and claim we are on the margins without accounting for
the work, not only in communication technology, but also in digital rhetoric and social media,
interpersonal and intergroup communication, health communication, and organizational
communication to name a few. I believe the critical mass of scholars and scholarship is
building and we will continue to see the growth of books. “The raw number of job postings in
Communication Studies remains robust and has rebounded nicely since the recession and at
the same time the survey of earned doctorates from NSF suggests we are not over-producing
Ph.D.’s. There are not more Ph.D.’s than jobs available,” says Parry-Giles, It is clear that
Communication Studies has more students and fewer faculty positions than many of its
humanities peers, many of whom are experiencing significant decline. As universities and
colleges retool to best meet the future and create the most informed and relevant future
citizens, it seems that Communication Studies is destined to be high on the evolving
educational roster.