Organizations for Communication Professionals

There are many organizations available to Communication Professionals, some of which include:

1.  The Society for Technical Communication www.stc.org.  

 

STC is “the world's largest and oldest professional association dedicated to the advancement of the field of technical communication. The Society’s members span the field of the technical communication profession and reach across every industry and continent. In fact, the Society has members in almost 50 countries and is continuing to grow rapidly outside of North America and Europe” (STC.org).  The intended audience is technical communicators in various fields, as well as professionals, organizations or companies who are impacted by technical communication.

2.  The Association for Women in Communications www.womcom.org.  

 

This organization targets women in the communication field as the intended audience and provides opportunities for education, networking and building connections with other women in the communications sector.

What Makes a Good Blog?

According to media writer Simon Dumenco, “there is no such thing as blogging.  There is no such thing as a blogger.  Blogging is just writing - writing using a particularly efficient type of publishing technology” (Scocco, P.1).  The use of a blog is to efficiently provide ones written materials to a specific target audience in communicating a product, concept or idea with your personal branding.  To do this effectively, bloggers, or writers, must create their blogs with a specific purpose and target audience in mind, then cater the design and content to hold greatest impact for this audience.

In evaluation of blogs created by my fellow students in COM480 Communication Studies Capstone, I found all created blogs to hold many valuable components and key attributes necessary to effectively target their intended audience.  For the purpose of this class, students were to create a blog showcasing their written work to potential employers, including both assignments from the COM480 class, along with previously completed written work and assignments from past classes.  The blogs I evaluated are as follows; Communication Happens http://communicationhappensblog.blogspot.com/ by Chassity Beals, The Expert Witness Communicator blog http://the-expert-witness.blogspot.com/ by William Gulya and Communication Today blog http://lilgunny.blogspot.com/ by Dolly Burgos.

Career Fields for Communication Studies Majors

Public Relations Managers and Specialists
The 2010 median pay for this position is $57,550 for specialists and $91,810 for managers.  A Bachelors degree is required, with related work experience preferred.  This role is responsible for creating and maintaing “a favorable public image for their employer or client.  They write material for media releases, plan and direct public relations programs, and raise funds for their organizations” (BLS.gov).  There is anticipated growth in this job as driven by “the need for organizations to maintain their public image in a high-information age and with the growth of social media” (BLS.gov).

Technical Writers
The 2010 median pay for this position is $63,280.  A Bachelors degree is required along with experience in a technical field like computer science or engineering.  This role is responsible for producing “instruction manuals and other supporting documents to communicate complex and technical information more easily” (BLS.gov).  The opportunity for advancement is expected to be good for this position.

Writers and Authors
The 2010 median pay for this position is $55,420.  Writers and authors must have excellent writing skills and a degree is typically required.  In this role, individuals “develop original written content for advertisements, books, magazines, move and television scripts, songs, and online publications” (BLS.gov).  While growth is expected for this position, there is also a lot of competition for salaried jobs.