Articulo_2_EN_Doxa_31_The_decline_in_reputation

decades, great efforts have been made to develop methodologies and techniques for measuring the reputation of corporations. Some of the rankings that stand out are the Hay Group’s World’s Most Admired Companies, Millward Brown’s Brandz™ Top 100, the RepTrak™ Pulse from the Reputation lnstitute, and MERCO Companies of Villafañe and Associates, to name just a few (Villafañe, 2004; Álvarez-Villanueva, 2012; Alloza; Carrera; Carrera, 2013).

It is often forgotten that the very activity carried out by communicators, who are generally organised into professional associations, also has a reputational dimension. For decades, in the main debate forums regarding the activity of communicators such as journalists, advertising and audio-visual professionals, discontent has been expressed regarding the lack of sensitivity by the political class, many companies and institutions (such as the educational system), and even society as a whole toward the relevance of communication.

At this point, it seems appropriate to make a preliminary comment. When we speak of the “communication sector”, or “sectors related to communication”, we understand this to include all of the activities related to communication, such as journalism, management of business and institutional communication (communication management), advertising, entertainment, and audio-visual fiction. Therefore, the expressions “communication system” and “audio-visual system”, or “communication sector” and “audio-visual sector”, are considered to be the same for practical purposes (CECUV, 2015). Moreover, it should be emphasised that professional activities related to communication are fully related to the context of the cultural and creative industries, which are relevant to the economy as a whole, as clearly confirmed by many scholars (Miége, 2004; Vogel, 2004; Castells, 2009; Zallo, 2011; Hesmondhalgh, 2012; Harvey, Wen & Li, 2015; etc.), as well as leading organisations such as UNESCO (2013).

In short, the hypothesis proposed by this article in studying the reputation of the communication sector and its relationship with working conditions and the quality of the service it provides appears to be of great importance, in our opinion, due to the fact that over the last decade we have witnessed a significant decline in the reputation of professions linked to the field of communication, which has led to a precarious situation for the sector and the working conditions of professionals. On the one hand, the loss of credibility of journalism in recent years has been noted, as accredited by various reports by the Madrid Press Association, by annual reports of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the University of Oxford, and by periodic surveys of the Centre for Sociological Research (APM, 2013, 2019; CIS, 2013, 2020; Valera, 2016; UPV, 2015; Newman et al., 2019).

On the other hand, if one observes the situation of the commercial communication and advertising sector, corporate communication, media agencies, and communication companies, it can be seen that their evolution in the last decade has also been negative. Reports from the Observatorio de la Publicidad en España –Advertising Observatory of Spain–, published by the Asociación Española de Anunciantes –Spanish Advertisers Association– (AEA), the Asociación de Creatividad Transformadora –Association of Creative Transformation– (ACT), Asociación de Agencias de Medios –Association of Media Agencies– (AM), the Consejo de Consumidores y Usuarios –Council of Consumers and Users– (AUC), and the Federación de Empresas de Publicidad y Comunicación –Federation of Advertising and Communication–, among others, have confirmed a dramatic decrease in advertising investment between 2007 and 2013, which fell from 14,915 to 10,461 million Euros as a result of the severe financial crisis of 2008 (Benavides et