Evolution of a Field

Probst, Carole; Buhmann, Alexander; Ingenhoff, Diana; Lepori, Benedetto

doi:10.24434/j.scoms.2019.01.002

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Journal article

Evolution of a Field : Swiss Media and Communication Studies

Probst, Carole University of Applied Sciences ZHAW
Buhmann, Alexander BI Norwegian Business School
Ingenhoff, Diana University of Fribourg
Lepori, Benedetto Università della Svizzera italiana

2019

Published in:

Studies in Communication Sciences. - Seismo Verlag. - 2019, vol. 19, no. 1, p. 7-23

English In this paper, we present the evolution of Swiss Media and Communication Studies over the last decade by summarizing the main results from a project funded by the Swiss University Conference (2008–2017). We give an overall picture of the growth in the field (in terms of student numbers, resources and activities), look at diversity in terms of topics (two clusters are identified and presented with respect to various indicators), present changes at the level of individual research units (where we find variance in terms of evolution), give insights into publication patterns (two different publication cultures are found) and describe mobility and career pathways in the field. We observe limited mobility within Switzerland, internal pathways at the level of doctoral students and post-docs, and international mobility, mainly within the same linguistic region, at the professorial level. We conclude that the field has reached a consolidation phase and achieved a rather stable situation, but faces new challenges, with digitalization and the pressure towards homogenization in publication output among the most important.

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques et sociales et du management

Department

Département des sciences de la communication et des médias

Language