Advances in technology occur with increasing rapidity, allowing consumers to control or manage their media consumption. This, in turn, has had a significant effect on the public relations and advertising industries. Navigating this increasingly complex, user-controlled media culture presents new challenges that professionals in these industries need to overcome.

The thesis is separated into three main subsections. The first section will primarily cover advertising. Important topics covered in this section will include the history of advertising, how audiences manage their media and how it affects advertising, and advances in technology and media that are presently impacting advertising.

The section subsection will cover public relations. Like the advertising section, the public relations section will discuss similar topics and how they affect the field. The history of public relations, how audiences manage their media and how it affects public relations, and advances in technology and media that are presently impacting public relations will all be covered.

The third and final segment of the thesis will combine advertising and public relations, comparing and contrasting these related but distinct functions. Research findings will be incorporated to analyze these two fields and hypothesize the direction in which these industries are headed. The final conclusion of the thesis will answer the following question: "What will the functions and strategies employed by the head of communication in an organization look like in five years?"