The Gap Between Business and Communications Education — Do You See It Too?

Would love to hear from our community Champions and Experts to get their perspective ​@DEClarke ​@Samiha Fariha ​@Will Swope ​ ​@McKenna_Kelley 

Love seeing DDC Community members spreading the knowledge!

​@Aisharodpr would love to know more about how the students received the message and what sort of questions they asked! What did the discussion look like?

p.s. I love the pictures you shared on Linkedin. 

What a fascinating discussion! Thanks for sharing that experience with those students. Not only do I agree that there is a disconnect with the academic level, but that also exists within current professional teams. One thing that stuck out to me in what ​@Aisharodpr said was, “the importance of understanding and analyzing data to connect the dots.” This has probably been the biggest lightbulb that has gone off for me with the teachings of ​@DinoDelic and Sam Knowles. 

Fundamental shifts are happening when it comes to the data that is available to us. I came from the world of broadcast news. I started to realize I needed to change my career when things went from a broad audience making an appointment to see my broadcast to the news individuals wanted tailored to them coming straight to them. News was no longer in print and broadcast tv, it was online and being reported through social. Another big change, it use to be that people posted on social media what caught their eye in traditional news, now traditional news tries to talk about viral posts or trends on social, while struggling to keep up with the pace of digital. I still look at what the journalism students are being taught today and wonder if it is relevant and prepares them for how to communicate with an audience that no longer makes an appointment to watch a newscast. Looking back at my college days, I didn’t realize at the time, I was going to school to be an influencer, it was just called a reporter, anchor or producer back then. But, things have changed, I think many influencers carry more weight, and have more of a following that your average person still doing the 5 o’clock news. They also know their brand, their content and their message better than most of the ‘journalism’ I see today.

Now we are seeing a similar foundational shift with communications. Dino replied in a LinkedIn post that caught my eye this week. Someone mentioned, PR teams use to chase eyeballs, now they feed LLMs. How we get our message into those models to be a part of the answer to key consumer prompts and be a relevant part of that process will be a critical part of the road ahead. I don’t know if students are being exposed to those changes and much they will learn about historical ways of communications vs. what it will be like going forward. They have such an opportunity to shape the metrics that will define the industry, help guide teams that will be in the middle of that transition over the next few years. I’m also so interested to get their views from their generation on influencer marketing and what role that will take on in this transition toward LLMs. I think there is a space for all of the above, an I hope still a space for traditional media as well. I’ve seen so many friends in news dealing with the impacts of layoffs in recent months. It reminds me of so many industries that refused to adapt with the times. Had Blockbuster done things differently would they be today’s Netflix? Will all major sports leagues and big events eventually move to streaming vs. broadcast? Will earned media still carry the same weight a decade from now or will it be the LLM scores and metrics that Meltwater is developing within GenAI Lens? Much as with anything to do with AI, I don’t think anyone has all the answers, but I think the questions and the discussion are critical to have both for students and for communications teams.

Having a clear, concise and most importantly consistent message across all your departments and teams will be vital. Learning how to do that is something we can all do, no matter what level we are at. For those thinking it’s too big a topic and too big an issue to tackle, I’ll go back to what ​@DinoDelic says, find your North Star. 

I think there’s an important distinction I’d add to this conversation. Both my BA and MA are in English, and I never had any formal PR, communications, or marketing education in college. Much of what I know about communications has been learned through more than a decade of actually doing the work. So, I can’t personally speak to what is or isn’t being taught in today’s communications programs. But, I do think the response to @DinoDelic’s Meltwater workshops and Earning Your Seat speaks volumes.

If experienced communications professionals are having the same “lightbulb” moments Will describes when learning how to connect communications activity to data, business objectives, and measurable outcomes, that suggests this isn’t simply a gap in academic curricula. It’s a gap many of us have carried into the profession and have had to fill along the way.

That’s one reason I’m so grateful for the resources Dino has created. He has helped give many of us a framework, vocabulary, and practical tools for thinking about communications not simply as generating coverage or engagement, but as a business function that should be able to demonstrate its impact.

I’m especially excited to take those lessons with me into my new role as Director of Communications & Digital Marketing at Dramatists Guild Foundation. Working in the nonprofit arts means every communications decision needs to be intentional, and I’m looking forward to putting more of these data-driven principles into practice.

So yes, I think the academic conversation is important. But I’d broaden it even further: How do we make sure both the next generation of communicators AND those of us already doing the work have the skills to demonstrate communications’ value to the organizations we serve?