The Communication department is still undervalued within companies. The Communication Director must acquire management training. Study plans must be more multidisciplinary. But it is a feminized sector and with great job opportunities. Any of the previous sentences could have been the title of an event organized last Thursday, March 14, by the University of Navarra in which six experts discussed the Perspectives of Communication, attended by Proa Comunicación Consultant Cristina Garcia.
All of them agreed on the very important role Communication has within organizations, even though managers often find it difficult to understand. This is something that, according to José Manuel Velasco, who also advocated for self-introspection within the profession, can be alleviated in part with training in management for the communication director. Silvia Albert supported this position, adding that in her opinion “Communication should not be a study separate from management”.
In her discourse, Txema Valenzuela demanded the academic body present in the session to make changes in the curriculum and proposed integrating the three branches which the Communication major is mostly divided into currently (Journalism, Audiovisual Communication and Advertising), “because today the work is highly integrated”. Before an audience composed mainly of students and teachers, she also made it clear that the faculty is only “the first step in a much longer learning process.”
As for the talents that the exercise of this profession requires, a majority of the members of the table emphasized the ability to listen, to feel how others feel, to empathize, to which Gemma Muñoz added the know how to adapt while Txema Valenzuela highlighted courage.