Communications Trend Radar

About the research project

Team: Prof. Dr. Stefan Stieglitz (University of Potsdam), Prof. Dr. Ansgar Zerfaß (University of Leipzig), Dr. Michelle Wloka (University of Leipzig), Sünje Clausen (University of Potsdam), Daniel Ziegele (Leipzig University)

Project duration: from 2021 until 2024

From 2021 to 2024, the Communications Trend Radar offered communications managers support in identifying significant developments outside their area of expertise at an early stage.

The research team focused primarily on analyzing changes in the areas of society, management and technology.

Overview of the trends:

• 2024: Information Inflation, AI Literacy, Workforce Shift, Content Integrity, Decoding Humans
• 2023: State Revival, Scarcity Management, Unimagination, Augmented Workflows, Parallel Worlds
• 2022: Language Awareness, Closed Communication, Gigification, Synthetic Media, Cybersecurity
• 2021: Denialism, Virtual communication, Sustainability in communication, Digital nudging, Voice interaction

Methodology

As part of the project, various sources such as scientific publications, conference proceedings, international trade journals and studies by management and technology consultancies were systematically examined. This was supplemented by an analysis of relevant social media sites.

Based on this evaluation, the research team identified potential trends and described them in detail. The impact of the trends on various aspects of communication was assessed, including leadership, objectives, structure, formats, stakeholders, platforms and communication management.

The trends identified were then prioritized using a defined evaluation scheme in order to select the five most significant trends.

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