A General Conference department formed by the merger of the Bureau of Public Relations and the Radio-Television Department in January 1973. The merger was suggested by the advisory committees of the two departments and approved at the 1972 Annual Council. At the 1990 General Conference session, the department’s function was refocused to address primarily the press and media relations from the General Conference.
The Communication Department’s concerns include the development and maintenance of a true image of the church, a clear understanding of the church’s principles by the public, and the effective use of broadcast and audiovisual techniques and media in communicating the gospel to the world. To achieve this, the department utilizes every appropriate medium of public information and community relations.
The department offers services to its two primary publics, that of the church itself and of the church’s various publics. Representing the entire church to the public media and the community at large, the department offers a variety of communication services—including media relations and broadcast and video productions—to other departments and entities. In this sense, it functions at headquarters much like an institutional public relations office. At the same time it maintains a departmental program throughout the world church along the same lines as other church departments, counseling and aiding the various church organizations and institutions on the corporate and local level in their communications and media programs.
Interests of the department are served by communication directors at division, union, local conference, and church levels.
The 1990 refocusing of the Communication Department established its primary function as that of the Office of News and Information. In 1994 the department included four units: (1) the Office of News and Information, with its Adventist News Network (ANN) serving the official press agency of the Seventh-day Adventist Church; (2) Media Services, a production center for video and information service broadcast programming; (3) SDA s On-line Forum on CompuServe, and (4) Public Relations and General Conference tours.
The General Conference Spring Meeting of 1993 established the Communication Strategy Commission to address the communication ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The commission had a fourfold purpose: (1) to establish an overall communication strategy/structure for the church to govern its broadcast media, public relations, and other communication activities both within the church and for the world at large; (2) to design this strategy for use at all levels and by all entities of the church; (3) to develop the strategy/structure in such a way that it will provide direction for all broadcast media, public relations, and communication activities; (4) to provide a basis in the strategy for all supporting ministries involved in communication activities to contribute to the overall communication strategy of the church. See also Seventh-day Adventist Media Center .
Directors of the Bureau of Public Relations: W. L. Burgan, 1912–1940; C. B. Haynes, 1940–1942; J. R. Ferren, 1942–1954; D. H. Thomas, 1954–1956; H. B. Weeks, 1956–1962; E. W. Tarr, 1962–1973.
Secretaries of the Radio and Radio-Television Department: Paul Wickman, 1948–1953; E. R. Walde, 1953–1964; J. O. Iversen (acting), 1964–1966; J. J. Aitken, 1966–1971; W.R.L. Scragg, 1971–1973.
Directors of the Department of Communication: W.R.L. Scragg, 1973–1975; M. Carol Hetzel, 1975–1978; James E. Chase, 1979–1984; Robert W. Nixon, 1984–1988; Shirley A. Burton, 1988–1994; Ray Dabrowski, 1994– .