Communication in the light of innovation and digitalization

In memory of the founder of the doctoral study program Strategic Communication Management at Alma Mater Europaea - European Center Maribor, prof. emerit. dr. sc. Mario Plenković

The modern world is defined by global processes of environmental change, digitalization, and the covid-19 virus pandemic, which are changing the communication paradigm and thus also the ways in which communities on all levels and structures communicate. Research confirms that the processes of innovation of forms, methods, and types of communication are much faster compared to the practice of adequate implementation of the results of this development. With such complex challenge of modern times in mind, academician prof. emerit. dr. Mario Plenković (Alma Mater Europaea) started a new study program that corresponds to the key issues of the development of communication science. Through scientific research work in the doctoral study of Strategic Communication Management, students and professors are looking for answers to the communication challenges of our time, as discussed in this monograph. In their efforts, the researchers rely on important professional, substantive, and methodological knowledge left to us by Professor Plenković. This monograph is dedicated, with gratitude and respect by students and professors, to one of the greatest men of communication science, the eminent professor Mario Plenković.

The present scientific monograph contains research papers that offer answers to the questions of the development of communication in the light of intensive technical and technological innovation and digitalization of society. Also, the authors in defining the field of research, consider other current issues of the social environment, such as the covid-19 pandemic, globalization, endangering the natural environment and the prevailing neoliberal concept of material production of social life. The monograph includes ten chapters, all of which underwent a peer-review and proofreading process. The authors of the chapters are students and professors, researchers of the doctoral study program Strategic Communication Management at Alma Mater Europaea and partner universities.

The content of the monograph can be divided into three groups. The first group consists of contributions that explore the processes of innovation and innovative communication in modern society. The second group consists of contributions that explore the effects of digitalization on communication or social interactive symbolic processes in terms of the effect of alienation and emphasizes deliberative communication in response. The third group consists of contributions whose research activity is focused on the impact of the development of information and communication technology in the educational process or the public sector.

Although the chapters are seemingly separate thematic units, what connects all of them, is especially evident - empirical research based on scientific principles of the phenomenon of communication in the context of dynamic changes in social and technological reality.

Doc. dr. sc. Božidar Veljković, Editor