Latest News

Posted By Eun-Ju Lee, ICA President, (Seoul National U)

I must confess that I've never considered myself a particularly effective teacher. Although I was a good student (at least in terms of grades), and I'd like to believe that I'm a decent researcher, I humbly acknowledge my shortcomings in teaching – I tend to teach what I know best, rather than prioritizing what students are interested in learning. This gap seems to be widening, especially in undergraduate courses.  

Globally, a decline in the prominence and perceived value of humanities and social sciences within higher education seems evident, and communication is no exception, albeit to varying degrees. At its core, there is a growing emphasis on education that directly leads to specific career paths. While communication skills are universally valued across professions, the academic discipline of communication often faces underappreciation in terms of its depth, breadth, and significance. This (mis)perception has an adverse impact on not only student enrollment, but also broader institutional support within the academic community.

This challenge is closely tied to the shifting job market, where there is a growing emphasis on fields directly linked to employment, particularly STEM and business. Students and their families increasingly view education as an investment towards a specific career path, and thus, prefer majors with clear and direct job prospects. Communication studies, with their broad focus on skills such as critical thinking, writing, logical reasoning, and cultural awareness, often struggle to demonstrate their direct applicability and relevance in the job market. Today's media landscape, characterized by rapid technological advancements, further complicates this, as many communication programs find themselves caught between traditional theoretical foundations and the need to equip students with cutting-edge practical skills.

Financial constraints add another layer of complexity. Like other humanities and social sciences disciplines, communication departments often face budgetary pressures, which limit their ability to access the latest technological tools, support research activities, and offer specialized courses. This resource limitation hinders the development of innovative curricula aligned with the evolving media landscape.

Addressing the apparent crisis in communication education requires a delicate balance between maintaining the discipline's core values and adapting to the changing media and technological landscape. It is often suggested that updating curricula to include more digital media, social media strategies, data analytics, and other emerging fields is crucial. Strengthening ties with the industry to provide students with hands-on, practical experiences is also recommended. Can these approaches help mitigate the challenges we face?  

It involves not just curricular changes but also a potential shift in the overall approach to communication education to ensure that communication studies remain as an integral part of higher education. As a leading scholarly association, ICA should be a platform where our own successes and failures in educational experiments are openly shared, as we grapple with the crucial question of how best to prepare our students for their future. I look forward to a deeper engagement with these topics at the Blue Sky: Pedagogical Workshops at ICA24 and beyond!