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The State of Media:

What will the field
look like in 10 years?
R. Lance Holbert
Temple University

What has the past ten years

produced in terms of change?
Qualitative Trend Analysis - next ten years will be built
on what we have seen from the past ten years
Communication as field of study
Communication as environment
Communication as industry

Communication as Field (Teaching)

Teaching: Solid Indicators from past decade
# of programs (globally) - increase
# of students (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) - increase
Diversity of communication-related majors - increase
# of professorial positions have increased (but not
keeping pace with student demand)
Job market for comm PhDs robust compared to
likeminded fields in humanities and social sciences
(but wages remain relatively stagnant except at the
higher end)

Communication as a Field (Research)

Research: Equally solid indicators
More communication journals
More communication journals ISI-rated
Increase in impact factor scores
More grant-generated research (globally)
Higher quality being conducted abroad
Taking a leading role in certain emerging areas:
Computational Social Science, Science
Communication, Environmental Communication

Communication as Environment
Expansion in the range, scope and pervasiveness of
communication
Last 10 years have brought us
rise of smart phones (mobility of web)
pervasiveness of mediated IP (e.g., texting)
rise of social media
The communication environment has changed in some dramatic
ways over the past ten years (understatement), but I caution
against seeing the former and the latter as truly distinct.

Communication as Industry
The communication industry has changed as radically as
the environment
Here are just a few examples:
The promotional industries should we be thinking
in terms of distinctions between advertising, public
relations, and other promotional areas?
The publishing industry how many different ways
can one of your students get a text book?
The audio-visual industries - how do we distinguish
between a content creator and an audience
member?

Key Words to Describe Past Decade

Growth
Change
Pervasive
Flux
Uncertainty
Innovation

As me move further into the digital age, we need to be thinking about what
is gained and what is lost. I would argue things are not necessarily better
(not sure the last 10 years have brought a change to the fundamental
human endeavor), but the pace and pattern of life has sure changed.

What can we expect from the next 10 years?

I can state with some certainty that the communication
environment of 2025 will present some stark changes
from what we are functioning within during August, 2015.
What new technologies will be adopted? Look to our
theories:
Diffusion of Innovations
Uses and Gratifications

Increased Globalization
Regardless of what the communication environment
looks like in 2025 from a technology perspective, it would
be difficult to imagine that the trend toward enhanced
globalization will do anything but move forward.

Potential moderators would be economic collapse,

environmental disaster, and war (all of which are more
than possible)

Blurring of Distinct Communication Industries

Regardless of what area of communication you are
interested in, other industries traditionally treated as
distinct from your own will continue to infringe on your
business

When you boil it all down, all of us are working with 0s

and 1s in the digital age. As a result, we are
overlapping more in function.

What does this mean for the field?

There is an increased awareness and salience of the
importance of communication in terms of its social
significance and potential influence creates a natural
receptivity to our research and what we teach
The field is now a truly global entity the opportunities
that exist abroad are ten fold what they were a decade
ago, and North American programs need to seize this
opportunity and retain market share
The field needs to challenge itself more than others in
terms of asking the types of questions that address
current communication concerns and activities

Continued Difficulties
The field needs to define and brand itself
What is its added value to knowledge generation?
What is a communication question?
How do we balance scholarship and practice?
How do we maximize returns on processes like
enhanced globalization?
How do we compete with more mature fields?

These same questions were asked on the field 10,

20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago.

Final Thoughts
Although we are experiencing and engaging in all of these
communicative activities, are people.

.any more ethical in their communication?

.any more effective in their communication?
.any more efficient in their communication?
any less apt to experience some form of miscommunication?

I would argue the answer is no to each of these questions. If this

is the case, then the field is secure as long as it brings added value
when addressing of these questions.

About the Presenter

R. Lance Holbert is Professor and Chair of the Department of Strategic
Communication at Temple University. Prior to joining Temple in July 2014, he held
professorial positions at the University of Missouri, University of Delaware, The
Ohio State University, and the University of South Carolina. He studies political
communication, with particular focus given to the persuasive influence of
entertainment media within democratic frameworks.

R. Lance Holbert
Professor and Chair of the
Department of Strategic
Communication
Temple University

Professor Holbert has authored or co-authored fifty-eight peer-reviewed journal

articles, two books, and a dozen book chapters. Most recently, he has edited a
forthcoming volume entitled, Entertainment Media and Politics: Advances in
Effects-Based Research, to be published in December 2014 by Taylor and
Francis. Professor Holbert is also a Distinguished Research Fellow with the
University of Pennsylvanias Annenberg Public Policy Center. He serves as
Associate Editor of the Journal of Communication, the International
Communication Associations flagship publication, along with being a member of
a dozen additional editorial boards for some of the fields top outlets.
Professor Holbert serves as Vice-Chair of the International Communication
Associations Mass Communication Division and will be taking over as Chair at
the 2015 annual meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He teaches a variety of
undergraduate and graduate courses in the broad tent that is strategic
communication and was named the 2013 Teacher of the Year by the National
Communication Associations Mass Communication Division.