The Future Communications Advisor

The Future Communications Advisor is a broad research project with a range of sub projects:

• CEO communication and the future communications advisor
  This research project will improve our understanding of CEO communication and of which characteristics will be most essential for future communications advisors working with top management. We co-create the research project with top managers and experienced communication advisors to top management.

  Read more here: www.ceocommunication.dk.

• Think aloud protocols – a valuable tool for the communications advisor
  This project is co-created with communications advisors and organisations aiming to improve their communication. By asking respondents to think aloud while reading various communication products, we aim to further discuss and develop the method ‘think aloud protocols’ – both theoretically and practically.

  Read research articles: Tænke højt-protokoller: En metode til at undersøge modtageres tekst forståelse og -oplevelse and Danske Studier 2019 (pp. 74-116).

• Co-creation for research
  In this research project we apply a system of co-creation for research, through which we aim to actively collaborate with practitioners and students.

  In order to co-create new knowledge and expand our understandings together. Our aim is to further analyse and develop this method and develop processes for ‘the new research value chain’.

  Read more about the co-creation process with students: Den læsegruppe, du altid ønskede at være med i! and about the co-creation process with communications advisors: Samarbejde mellem bureau og forsker skaber viden om underbelyst disciplin.

• Research integration in university teaching
  Based on a university grant, we have experimented with integrating research in the university course ‘The communications advisor and her professional roles’ (Man kan linke til siden på kurser.ku.dk). During this course, all students create their own research projects based on their individual interests, and these projects become important parts of the larger research project ‘The Future Communications Advisor´.

  Furthermore, we work extensively on integrating our research results in university courses as well as workshops with and education of communication practitioners.

• Internship periods – socialization and learning processes
  Taking our point of departure from a broad variety of qualitative data, we study communications students and their internship periods asking questions such as: How can we describe and improve socialization and learning processes during internship periods? How can we enhance the learning environment? How can we create the most effective and effective internship periods – benefitting both interns and organisations respectively?

The Future Communications Advisor is based on both qualitative and quantitative data:

• Interviews with communications advisors from a range of industries as well as top managers
• Participant observation following communications advisors during their everyday professional practice
• Focus groups with communications advisors
• Workshops with communications advisors
• Surveys sent to a variety of communications advisors

This gives us the opportunity to produce both thick and detailed descriptions of practice and ways of thinking and acting among communications advisors – and at the same time, our surveys provide us with the opportunity to create more generalized knowledge.

Using ‘the co-creation for research’ approach in all projects, our goal is to establish a knowledge-creating relationship where both practitioners, students and researchers are engaged in a joint endeavour to identify, analyze and develop solutions for relevant real-world problems and dilemmas.

We do this by involving practitioners and students in ‘the new research value chain’ where both researchers, practitioners, and students employ their respective knowledge when discussing research questions, data, analyses and future practices during workshops and meetings.

Read more about co-creation for research: Studerende, forskere og kommunikationsfolk bag nyt forskningsprojekt.

As we use the ‘co-creation for research’ approach, both practitioners, researchers and students are continuously involved in this research project – both when defining research questions, collecting data, analysing data, discussing findings, and developing best practice. We term this: the new research value chain as practitioners are involved throughout the entire research process and not only receivers of research-based knowledge as we know it from the more traditional research value chain.

The co-creation process takes place in more formalized partnerships and collaborations with external partners as well as in more informal discussions and workshops with practitioners and others. These. Collaborations and networks. Entails a strong tie between the research project and professional practitioners as well as the educational environment at the university.

We also engage in a variety of more traditional research communication activities towards a broader audience outside academia as we publish articles and white papers , create workshops and panels, use SoMe, write books etc.

Furthermore, our annual November conference – The Communications Advisor of the Future –  at the university of Copenhagen gathers approximately 300 communications researchers, communications advisors and communication students each year providing a forum for joint discussions, inspiration and co-creation of new knowledge on the practice of the competent communications advisor of the future.