Why study communications
To better understand the world we live in…
A smaller world. More contacts, more interplay, more exchanges, more trade. Daily life in the 21st century, shaped as it is by the effects of globalization, has at its core the art and science of communications. Through communications, humanity explores, learns, discovers. Peoples and cultures and individuals come to understand each other better. Social ties strengthen and cultural energy surges. Communications are in fact a staple of human interaction; from workplace co-operation and corporate public relations to TV programming, e-commerce and the promotion of government health and environmental policies, communications weigh in at every level.
Our professional and family activities, as well as our leisure time, are all shaped to a degree by information and communications technologies, be they more traditional (print media, radio, cinema, television) or more recent (Web, cell phones, blackberries).
What's more, with a sound grasp of persuasion techniques, we can better analyze and interpret political and governmental communications, whose numbers and complexity continue to grow as never before.
In the end, because communications are one of the engines of modern times, we need to study their internal mechanisms so that we can in turn better understand—and influence—the world we live in.
Student profile
Generally, students who go into communications divide into two categories, but they are all fascinated by the world around them, appreciate the importance of human relations (media-based or not), and have a keen interest in social and cultural phenomena.
Students in the first category hope to work in a communications firm, as media- or public-relations officers, as communications plan designers, as information officers or as journalists.
Students in the second category lean more toward research and see themselves for instance as analysts in a field like broadcasting and cinematographic policy.
Still, both groups want to use communications to promote the well-being of fellow citizens, albeit through different means that do indeed mesh now and then.