Communication Studies Rise to Relevance

By Jason Schmitt

At a college near you, at this very moment, a student is switching their major to
Communication Studies. As an academic discipline, Communication Studies is posting strong
growth in relation to undergraduate majors, undergraduate degrees awarded, student
popularity, and 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. Perhaps equally important is that the discipline
seems well positioned to maintain strong future growth potential.
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. Concepts that may have been more
abstract for students fifteen years ago such as relationship networks, group communication,
and media theory are becoming vitally relevant knowledge that a wide ranging student body
want to obtain. In addition, the broad nature and breadth of coursework in the discipline
seems to be another attribute of academic attraction.
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 enrollment 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 dont 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 Communication Degree or a Communication 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 National Communication Association
(NCA) and Professor at University of Maryland.
Students across the board are realizing how important our classes are. We might
pick a student up from business who realizes I will probably still be in business but they
want to come through the door differently, says Dawn Braithwaite, Professor and Chair of
Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
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 majorit 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 disciplinenot all
involved feel Communication Studies is utilizing its unique placement to provide a rigorous
and reaching academic profile. Robert McChesney, Professor of Communication at
University of Illinois, 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
research that very few people paid any attention to, to a value that might command a more
broad interest. I was hopeful that our [Communication Studies] departments would seize
the initiative and take advantage of this to elevate the profile, quality and importance of the
research. I think there has been some movement in that direction, by a handful of schools,
but for the most part I think many programs have stayed in bureaucratic mode which is do
what you have done before, dont make waves, draw your paycheck, 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 and peer-reviewed
research coming as many of these scholars are now at the stage of tenure and promotion.
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, which he indicates is a way to test the health of a given
discipline. Parry-Giles also finds the recent reports and quantifiable data will work well for
Communication Studies program directors when they go into their Dean or Provost offices,
requesting new faculty hires, with verifiable evidence that nationally the discipline is strong.
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.