We are living in an era where misinformation, or worse yet, disinformation campaigns are far too common. From the mudslinging in politics, to the safety — or lack thereof — of e-cigarettes and vaping, to innovative startups disrupting Wall Street, how do you know where the truth lies? And when it comes to your career in the communication industry, how do you know you are working for the “good...

There’s no doubt that the media landscape is constantly in flux. Students and professionals have to acquire new skills and embrace technologies to meet the shifting demands of the communications industry.

This brings up an important question: What do these changes mean for careers in communications, public relations and related fields?

At...

In the previous Relevance Report, I addressed the major shift in the tech industry, in which tech companies are experiencing recurring scandals and are “no longer a source of good, but also a source of the bad.” I claimed, “Consequently, the tech spokespeople need to adjust their crisis management know-how to manage the new combat era of Techlash.”

Since the Techlash keeps evolving, we...

Investing in trust is an investment in long-term business performance.

It’s been a hard year for trust. If it were a product we were trying to sell, we’d be alarmed about its future. We’re surrounded by headlines of trust gone wrong. From employees staging walkouts over business practices to intensifying scrutiny on who to do business with, companies are standing in a big bright...

Welcome to the 2020 edition of the USC Annenberg Relevance Report — a look into the future of one of the most dynamic professions on Earth. As in past years, we have curated a series of short essays from leading executives, academics and students in the public relations field, who are all connected to the University of Southern California.

Their stories cover a wide spectrum of topics...

I was reading a report on the next generation of communications leaders, when I came across the following simple sentence:

“Communications is arguably one of the most disrupted professions.”

This declaration set me back on my heels. To tell the truth, it kind of shocked me. When I imagine disrupted professionals, I think of newspaper reporters, retail merchants, music...

We’re in the midst of a mental health crisis — one that has reached epidemic proportions. Universities, the place I work, are in many ways ground zero.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 1 in 5 American adults live with a mental illness. That’s 46.6 million people. The situation is particularly acute in younger populations like Gen Z, where rates of anxiety...

In the United States and many other places around the world, we are seeing the fragmentation of societies, the emergence of extremism, populism, and the clustering of like-minded people into hostile camps deeply suspicious of the other’s values and motives.

One result of this fragmentation has been a kind of governmental paralysis in which major problems go unsolved. Yet polling data...