The Chair in Futures of Communication is a transfer initiative that seeks to bring together the different actors in the communication sector to encourage collective research in this field from a prospective point of view.

Last July, the Department and Faculty of Communication of the Pompeu Fabra University established, under the formula of Business Chairs that the UPF has been promoting in recent years, the Chair in Futures of Communication.

The objective of this Chair is to permanently and continuously study, from the discipline of Foresight, the horizons that are being outlined and/or foreseen for all participants in social communication processes (creation, production, editing, commercialization, distribution, technological supply, etc.) in all formats and with a broad vision of services that transcends the traditional conception of media.

The proposal is based on the need to offer individuals, companies, and institutions in the sector tools to monitor the transformations that are occurring and will occur in the future, to debate/dialogue, and to investigate the most relevant aspects of each moment (examples: use of artificial intelligence in communication services, changes in the appropriation of technological innovation by citizens and effects on communicative use patterns, changes in economic exploitation models, etc.).

The project is jointly promoted by the Department and the Faculty of Communication and by fourteen companies that have supported the project, and is open to all companies and institutions that feel concerned about the need to be attentive to these transformations, in order to assess the need to respond to them in their plan of activities and actions.

The Chair in Futures of Communication does not intend to replace the efforts made by many companies and institutions in this direction, but rather aims to be a shared space that helps them to complete their own initiatives. At the same time, for smaller companies without as much research capacity, we want it to be a valuable tool for their daily basis.

The Chair has a small stable work team and will seek external collaboration depending on the specific studies that are decided to be done.

At the same time, an essential characteristic of the project is the active participation of professionals from diverse disciplines and institutional and business backgrounds. Plurality is one of the bases of the utility of foresight studies on the futures of communication.

Some big questions:

Companies, institutions, and professionals in the sector all need answers to some big questions:

  • To what extent does the adoption of technological innovation help companies, and at what cost (both organizational and economic)?
  • How do improvements in connectivity affect the production, distribution, and use of media and communication services?
  • Does the traditional exploitation model, based on advertising, user payments, and public funding, have a future when GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) are absorbing more and more resources?
  • What kind of collaboration is likely to happen in the future between public and private providers of communication services?
  • How might methods and techniques for measuring the use of media and communication services evolve to help companies improve their self-assessment of their strategies?
  • What do we know about changes inthe  population communicative behavior patterns and attitudes toward the incorporation of technological innovation into the universe of services they receive and will receive in the future?
  • Is this the end or the beginning of the globalization in communication?
  • How will immersiveness, metaverse, artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, and ubiquitous communication affect content and consumption?
  • Will English become the ew Esperanto?
  • What kind of education do students need to enter communication professions, and what changes are necessary in university and education programs?
  • Can the future communication landscape maintain such a broad company structure in all sectors, with professionals paid adequately, or will unpaid services become the norm around a reduced number of professional structures, and what consequences will this have on the function of media and communication services?

To join forces

Beyond the research and development (R&D) carried out by companies and institutions in isolation or in collaboration with others, it is necessary to encourage collective research for the benefit of society as a whole on the possible futures of communication.

Foresight is the discipline that seeks to investigate and find possible answers to questions about future developments in a particular field. In our case, studying the futures of communication should help us understand possible and probable scenarios in the communication sector.

To advance these objectives, the Chair in Communication Futures was created, open to collaboration with companies, institutions, and professionals (from companies, universities, and research centers) who share the idea that together we can expand knowledge of ongoing transformations.

The Chair aims to be the seed of a Communication Futures Research Institute, which actively participates in the European and international debate on this topic.

The Chair, in its initial stage, and the institute later on, should allow progress in at least these directions:

  • Encourage research on the appropriation of technological innovation in the production, distribution, and use of communication services.
  • Provide reliable answers to professionals and companies' concerns about the transformations taking place in the sector.
  • Promote research on the economic models that must sustain services.
  • Foster debate among professionals about the futures of communication.
  • Help universities and educational institutions regarding the need to revise the training models for future professionals.