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Communications Trend Radar 2023
Contact
Prof. Stefan Stieglitz
stefan.stieglitz@uni-potsdam.de
Prof. Ansgar Zerfaß
zerfass@uni-leipzig.de
About the research project
Team: Professor Stefan Stieglitz (University of Potsdam), Professor Ansgar Zerfass (Leipzig University), Sünje Clausen (University of Potsdam), Daniel Ziegele (Leipzig University)
Duration: January 2022 – February 2023
Professor Ansgar Zerfaß, Leipzig University“We aim to equip communication professionals with the foresight to identify significant trends early on, particularly those beyond their immediate field.”
What are the most relevant trends that communication managers should consider for 2023? For the third year running, the universities of Leipzig and Potsdam conducted an independent research project to identify trends likely to influence communication practices in the near future. For 2023, these were State Revival, Scarcity Management, Unimagination, Augmented Workflows, and Parallel Worlds.
The Communications Trend Radar supports communication departments in the early identification of significant developments outside their discipline at an early stage. To achieve this, we monitor and assess changes in society, management, and technology.
The five trends for 2023
Methodology
Professor Stefan Stieglitz, University of Potsdam“The trends were selected by our research team independently based on rigorous scientific analysis.”
The Communications Trend Radar systematically observes interdisciplinary changes in social, managerial, and technological fields that could affect corporate communications.
Screening:The research teams reviewed a variety of sources including scientific publications, conference proceedings, international trade journals, studies by management and technology consultancies, and systematic analysis of social media platforms. More than 100 sources were evaluated for the Communications Trend Radar 2023.
Trend descriptions: Fourteen trends were shortlisted during the screening process and subsequently described in more detail. 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 assessed using a standardized scoring system to determine the five most pertinent trends. They comprised two trends from technology, two from management, and one societal trend.
