Reply to Is Communications a liberal arts major or a vocational major?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Communications is more vocational. 
Communication, without the S, is a liberal arts major and many tend to go and get masters and PhDs.
The s is very important and there's a distinction there. [/quote]

100% bona fide grade-A bull manure.

https://comminfo.rutgers.edu/undergraduate-programs/communication-major
[/quote]

I have no idea if this is true at the undergraduate major level, but it is true in the professional world. I do strategic communication for a living, which is different from communications, which is primarily PR and marketing. Certainly related, and there is probably some snobbery in there about the distinction in the name of the field, but what I do is the kind of public health interventions that change health metrics like HIV incidence. Generally public sector rather than private, and doesn’t aim to sell a thing (or market a person) as its goal.[/quote]

I’m a communications exec. “Communications” covers a lot of ground, including what you do. You’re attempting to separate yourself from a field that you think has a bad rep/connotation. But the truth is that it’s all “communications.”[/quote]

I acknowledged that it was attempting to separate in my post. And that there is snobbery in that. And also…what we do is slightly different, and is held to the standard of other health interventions so it can be tested and written up in scientific journals. We are pleased to hire people with deep backgrounds in communication theory. It may seem like semantics, but we use communication theory (how human communication influences behavior) to design health interventions. I think it is important to use the language people like to use about themselves, and my field makes a distinction between the PR/marketing side (which we do) and the communication side (which may end up with interventions that most comms shops don’t do, like training doctors in evidence based counseling methodology).

Anyway, I have no bias against communications majors and hire lots of them, then train them in the kind of work we do.[/quote]

Marketing people use “communication theory” in their work, as well; “how human communication influences behavior” IS the essence of marketing.

You are in health/public health communications. We all have specialties under the big umbrella or communications. [/quote]

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