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COMMUNICATIONS TREND RADAR 2022
Contact
Professor Stefan Stieglitz
stefan.stieglitz@uni-potsdam.de
Professor Ansgar Zerfaß
zerfass@uni-leipzig.de
About the research project
Team: Professor Stefan Stieglitz (University of Potsdam), Professor Ansgar Zerfass (Leipzig University), Suenje Clausen (University of Potsdam), Daniel Ziegele (Leipzig University)
Project period: January 2021 – February 2022
For the second time, the Communications Trend Radar – an interdisciplinary and scientific study – revealed the most important trends that will influence communication management in the near future.
The five trends identified for 2022 are Language Awareness, Closed Communication, Gigification, Synthetic Media and Cybersecurity.
The research series helps communication managers to identify important relevant changes beyond their own discipline at an early stage. To this end, changes in the areas of society, management and technology in particular were monitored and evaluated.
Professor Stefan Stieglitz, University of Potsdam“By taking an interdisciplinary approach we want to make communication managers aware of trends early on”.
The five trends for 2022
- Language Awareness: Valuing and embracing the diversity of language
- Closed Communication: A shift from public to close media environments
- Gigification: Outsourcing communication tasks to drive productivity
- Synthetic Media: A new era of content generation and public communication
- Cybersecurity: Raising awareness, countering attacks, and safeguarding communications operations
Methodology
Professor Ansgar Zerfass, Leipzig University“Most communications managers neither have the time nor the resources to observe trends throughout the year, especially when it comes to new topics outside the communications industry.”
The Communications Trend Radar systematically analyzes changes in the disciplines of society, management, and technology that may become relevant for corporate communications.
Screening: Sources include scientific publications, conference proceedings, international trade journals, studies by management and technology consultancies, and systematic analysis of social media sites. More than 100 sources were included for the Communications Trend Radar 2022.
Trend descriptions: 15 trends were shortlisted and described in more detail during the screening process. The research team paid particular attention to the potential impact of each trend on the communication function (leadership, goals, structure), the communication processes (formats, stakeholders, platforms), and communication management (content creation, budgets).
Scoring and selection: The pre-selected trends were evaluated using a fixed scoring scheme to select the five most relevant trends. These include two technological trends, two from management and one from society. The selection was then verified with corporate communications managers.
