Why Communication Analysis Continues to Need a Human Element

BY Mark Weiner, IPR MEASUREMENT COMMISSION/CHIEF INSIGHTS OFFICER, CISION

Given the extraordinary adoption of communication technology, everyone in PR has a tool and data.

While counterintuitive, broad acceptance of technology to advance productivity and efficiency reveals a greater need for the human elements required to manage tools and think about data they generate.

Moreover, as analytics software enables new and better choices, communication data and analysis expertise and judgement lag. The result is that more communicators risk mismanaging, misinterpreting and misapplying data.

Phillip B. Stark, professor and chair of statistics, University of California, Berkley, notes, “The type of data isn’t the point at all. The way of thinking matters.”

Stark’s schematic below demonstrates essential elements of communication data science, two-thirds of which require human contribution. In the diagram, Access to Tools represents technology-enabled execution.

Without experts’ input, though, technology is utterly stupid. Even AI requires training before it can think for itself.

The diagram illustrates Stark’s point that humans are key to discovering insights via data.