Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education in the Field of Mass Communication in Bulgaria

Abstract

The article does not attempt to build a holistic conceptual framework for developing education in Bulgaria's public communications field. It is exploratory research, which should serve as a basis for more in-depth elaborations in the near future, which could be a foundation for a long-term strategy for development in the sector. The publication starts with a theoretical review of the field, which is followed by the presented results of 10 in-depth semi-structured expert interviews with leading professionals from the Bulgarian communication practice. An additional asset of the research is that some of the people interviewed have experience as lecturers at higher education institutions, which gives them an overview of the academic field. The overall study outlines some key directions in which education in Bulgaria's public communications field can be updated and improved. Invariably, the experts' responses emphasize the importance of the direct link to practice. Additionally, the significance of developing personal skills is frequently mentioned, with curiosity being the leader in this regard.

Keywords

• mass communication
• education
• Bulgaria
• communication sciences
• in-depth interviews