Asia-Pacific Communication Monitor (APCM) is a transnational study exploring strategic communication practices in the region, including Hong Kong. The first APCM was conducted in late 2015 and the second in late 2017.
As the Hong Kong collaborator of the 2020/21 APCM, the Department of Communication Studies joined the team to release its results on March 24. The survey was conducted in late 2020 and received 1,155 valid responses from the communication professionals in 15 countries and territories of the region (Hong Kong: 114 responses). The full 2020/21 APCM report is available at http://www.communicationmonitor.asia/APCM-2021.html
The study revealed 5 key findings:
- Strategic issues: Digitalization, big data and algorithms, and maintaining trust are prioritized by communication professionals in the region.
- Social and mobile media are the two most important communication channels to address stakeholders in the region and they are predicted to remain as the more important ones in 2023.
- Communication professionals in Hong Kong reported the greatest need to develop their competencies among the professionals in the region; they also reported the fewest days spent for personal training and development. The gap between perceived importance and personal competence gets wider following the order of communication competence, management competence, business competence, technology competence, and data competence (the largest gap).
- “Using bots to generate social media communication” and “applying big data to gain audiences’ personal data” are identified as the ethical concerns mainly faced by communication professionals in Hong Kong.
- Insufficient flexibility to take care of family obligations is the main reason for the glass ceiling issue in Hong Kong and across the region.
The Department’s heartfelt appreciation goes to our friends and partners of industry for making this survey possible.
