How is the study of communication changing?

Purpose – The Conference on Corporate Communication serves as a forum to “exchange ideas and information on relevant issues facing the corporate communication profession.” What have we found over the past 10 years? What themes have been seen as “relevant” and how has what we research changed? This paper aims to focus on the answers to these questions. Design/methodology/approach – In order to examine how the central themes have changed over the years, a semantic network analysis was undertaken using the abstracts from all the presentations from each of the past nine years. The semantic network analysis examined the relationship among words to determine clusters of shared themes. Findings – The research found that over the course of the last decade, the study of corporate communication is not static. It is ever evolving as the world changes and continues to rise to meet the needs of this changing world Originality/value – This tool allowed the researcher the opportunity to capture the visible and quantifiable way in which themes are established in this community by noting a shared discourse among members that reflects common understanding of rules, a common belief of values and a way of life.