One of the most important assets that someone can have in the world today is effective communication. So much of the world that we live is shaped by directed communication. Advertising uses communication to create demand that was not there before in order to generate sales and revenues for companies and corporations. Television and film use communication to influence our desires and entertain us. We are regularly inundated with products and services that compete for our attention, and each new product and service must be able to be heard over the increasingly crowded communication spaces of our lives. This is where effective communication is an asset to someone looking to succeed, whether in business or in entertainment.
When considering career options for the communications major, it can seem that there may not be relevant fields that scream communications to the potential communications major. But communications should be understood as an important part of an interdisciplinary toolset in the same way that a liberal arts education provides students with a model for creatively thinking and understanding the western educational heritage. Without the ability to effectively communicate and shape viewpoints and perspectives through effective communication, businesses and organizations are not able to compete with their messages.
Fluid communication across many technological platforms is an issue relevant to the communications major today. For instance, many companies employ communications managers. These individuals are responsible for developing and implementing a company's comprehensive communication strategy. Since brand identity is a way that company's communicate those strategies to the consumer, the communications manager needs to develop their platform across many different media outlets. These include the web, print media, broadcasting, and the ever increasing and relevant social media. Social media in particular requires a good communications understanding since social media responds to rapidly changing social forces, and the ways that people connect to one another through various social media platforms is shaped by their cultural preferences, their group interests, and their motivations as both consumers and member of that "tribe". The communications manager of a company will have an understanding of this social landscape so as to better direct their company's message to its potential consumers.
Of course this kind of effective communication can be done in more than a corporate context. Public relations managers are also responsible to their clients and acting as a kind of translator between the public and the person or group they represent. The important thing to understand in this context is that public relations managers are also often responsible for damage control in the event of scandals and crises, and they need to use good communication to shape public opinion to their cause and support. Not everyone in communications will find themselves in the limelight, but businesses require people to give presentations and pitches, and advertisers create communication in the form of advertising. The point is that everyone will find themselves in a situation where they will need to use communication skills to influence an outcome. For someone considering a communications major, there is plenty of opportunity to use those skills in the world we live.
Nancy Meyers writes for education blogs where you can read more about the Top 10 Online Bachelor's in Communications Programs.