One of the most important challenges facing À Punt Mèdia is the development of a corporate culture based on concepts such as independence, innovation, public service, governance, transparency, credibility and participation, which can only be achieved with the involvement of the organisation’s employees through quality internal communication (Marín-Pérez, 2019).

In this sense, Valencian universities and, more specifically, the academic spaces linked to teaching and research in communication (journalism, audio-visual communication, and advertising/public relations) must offer considerable aid in improving the image of communicators and the reputation of the Valencian communication and audio-visual sector.

The low level of participation by the academic world in the surveys of 2015, 2017 and 2019 is a symptom of the lack of commitment to the profession and of the existence of a continuing, large gap between the educational system and the professional world. However, this situation has improved greatly in recent decades. The Association of Universities with Information and Communication Degrees (ATIC) and the Spanish Association for Communication Research (AEIC) are increasingly carrying out studies and research into the situation of the labour market, the evolution of professional areas of communication, the emergence of new professional profiles, the development of applied research, and more. Without a doubt, the reputational improvement of communication-related professions is also linked to the reputation of the university, which must strive to be exemplary at this time.

At the time of this writing, a state of alarm was declared in Spain as a result of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Among other measures taken during the health crisis, the Spanish government declared the media to be in the category of essential services (BOE nº 87 Anexos 11 y 13, 29/03/2020 –Official State Gazette no. 87 Annexes 11 and 13, 29/03/2020), which confirms the importance of communication, especially in situations as complex as this one. Moreover, it should be added that when we speak of the importance of the media, we are not only referring to information, which is absolutely essential in a state governed by the rule of law, but also to entertainment and other cultural and educational content, which helped citizens immensely in enduring the confinement, a situation that Spanish society was obligated to bear. Relying on the reputational improvement of the professions related to communication means making a commitment to a better future where communication will be called upon to play a major role.

6. Limitations of the study

The choice of the Valencian Community as the geographical area for this study was based on the fact that the territory has 5 million inhabitants and contributes 10% to Spanish GDP. Moreover, from 2012 to 2018 it became the only region in the European territory with its own culture and language that was deprived of public RTV services, which is an exceptional situation not only in Europe, but also among the developed countries of the OECD. For all of these reasons, the Valencian Autonomous Region offers an especially important field of study for analysing the scenario that has arisen from the crisis in the communication and audio-visual system, and for examining actions that may improve the debilitated reputation of the professions linked to communication, which could be applied to other territories, even at the international level