Distinguished Professor of Public Communication, University of Technology Sydney
There is never one perspective on an issue, one solution to a problem, or one way to succeed. So, this series will undoubtedly offer a range of valuable advice. But there are three things that stand out in terms of both opportunities and challenges that communication professionals in all fields need to embrace with increased commitment and effort.
Evaluation
Yes, I know, you are probably tired of hearing me harp on about it and being told to do more and better. But most fields of corporate and marketing communication including public relations continue to measure little more than media metrics – i.e., what is in media and transmission in terms of the Shannon and Weaver “source, message, transmitter, receiver, destination” model (1), or ‘outputs’ in program logic model terminology. They fail to identify effects that are created in the minds or behaviour of their stakeholders and audiences (outcomes and impacts). Many also evaluate based on black-box algorithms that have no validity and defy rather than apply logic. My presentation to the 2023 International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) Summit in Miami, Florida gave examples as well as practical tools for valid evaluation and will soon be available to view on the AMEC website.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
A topic that every consultant, writer, and industry practitioner will inevitably mention and even highlight is the continuing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). I say ‘continuing’ because despite claims of AI as the new big thing, algorithms embedded in digital code have been automating a range of processes for decades. Robots on production lines are one example. Even the term ‘artificial intelligence’ has been around for almost 70 years. It was first used in a workshop convened at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1956. That workshop and subsequent published papers involved some famous names in communication as well as IT and engineering, including Claude Shannon from Bell Laboratories, co-author of the still-widely used Shannon and Weaver Mathematical Theory of Communication that was written to measure electronic signal transmission, not human communication.
As an authoritative recent book on communication and AI notes, despite decades of discussion we still have a lot to learn about AI. For a start, neither the terms ‘artificial’ nor ‘intelligence’ are clearly defined. Artificial means fake, but despite uses for generation and distribution of disinformation, many AI processes and outcomes are quite real, not fake. Algorithms (instructions), which are the DNA of AI, are written by humans, so why are they artificial? And, as many results of AI simply imitate or emulate human activities, how are they intelligent? A very worthwhile reading about AI for communication professionals is An Introduction to Communication and Artificial Intelligenceby David Gunkel published by Polity (2).
Along with definitional issues, Gunkel points out that AI is clouded by the Hype Cycle that accompanies most new technologies. Getting past the hype that has been fed by science fiction for decades and talked up by eager IT specialists as well as many PR professionals is one of the challenges ahead. Furthermore – and here’s an opportunity – the future development of AI needs to be informed by three disciplines and fields of practice as follows:
1. Engineering and IT, who provide the information technology and mechanical infrastructure;
2. Neuroscience and cognitive science, who bring knowledge of large language models (LLMs), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning tools; and
3. Social science and the humanities, who should ensure that social needs are met by AI and that ethics are applied, rather than allowing AI to be used for manipulation and exploitation of people whether that be in elections or in marketing.
To date, the social sciences and humanities including communication professionals have mainly joined the AI cheer squad rather than playing a developmental role. Read Gunkel’s book – there’s a new year project.
Listening
A third key ingredient of success in 2024 and beyond is listening. Almost four decades working in communication research have shown me that what most call communication is speaking – such as in media publicity, websites, publications, social media posts, speeches and presentations, and so on. Those are information, not communication. Communication – from the Latin communis and communicare – is about exchange, sharing, and creating community or commonness of understanding. Communication is a two-way process. It requires speaking and listening. But research across 60 corporate, government, and non-government organizations on three continents shows that 80–95% of the so-called communication resources of organizations are devoted to telling and selling (3). The industry openly describes its practice as ‘storytelling’ (the organization’s story that is) and in phrases such as ‘content is king’. Success in communication requires listening to the stories of partners and stakeholders such as employees, customers, members, and communities, and as Marshall McLuhan said, “content of a medium is like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind” (4). Having gained attention, what does the juicy piece of content trigger? That is a question that has to be answered.
Bibliography
1: Claude Shannon & Warren Weaver. (1949). The Mathematical Theory of Communication. University of Illinois.
2: David J. Gunkel. (2021). An Introduction to Communication and Artificial Intelligence. Polity.
3: Jim Macnamara. (2024). Organizational Listening II: Expanding the Concept, Theory, and Practice. Peter Lang, New York.
4: Marshall McLuhan. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. MIT Press, p. 18.
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