Türkiye's Marmara University hosts conference to discuss future of communication

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye's Istanbul-based Marmara University is hosting a conference on the "Future(s) of Communication: Promises and Predicaments."

The three-day event, which opened on Wednesday, was organized by the Global Communication Association (GCA) and Marmara University's Faculty of Communication.

The conference will discuss many topics including the "Crisis of Democracy and Media," "Journalism and the Digital Age," "Public Relations and Crisis Communication" and "AI and Communication" with the participation of domestic and foreign lecturers and experts.

Yahya Kamalipour, the president of the GCA, said there are many conflicts in the world that people face and they need to make a collective effort to change the trend.

Turkish Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said at the opening ceremony that as the masses have turned into an apparatus of power, communicating with the masses, directing the masses and persuading the masses has turned into an essential occupation or an industry.

This process has brought with it new mass communication technologies, and the transformations experienced in the last few centuries with these technologies have become gigantic transformations that cannot be compared to other periods of history in terms of both their prevalence and intensity, he said.

With digital breakthroughs in the field of mass communication, these transformations have become more pervasive in people’s daily lives, and there has been a shift from one-way communication flows that direct the masses to communication processes that nurture and shape individuals, Altun said.

Recalling that it has been nearly a century since the world's first public demonstration of live television was made in 1926, he said during this century, television, along with radio, newspapers and cinema, has always been at the center of political, economic, social and cultural change.

With the addition of social media, digital platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) applications to these technologies, the scope, impact and speed of change and transformation have taken on a completely different dimension and continue to do so, he noted.