The communication discipline in the U.S.A. : history of development and current status

Abstract

The article discusses the main historical lines in the establishment of communication as an autonomous research field. The author believes that this field of research in the U.S.A. became established as an academic discipline around 1982, but interest in communication phenomena can be traced to the turn of the 20th Century.

         According to the author, there are three historical lines of communication scholarship in the U.S.A. One encompasses the development of journalism to include the study of mass communication and media. A second encompasses the development of speech to include communication study. A third builds on early theoretical efforts anchored in sociology, social psychology, political science, and linguistics. The author considers each of the three historical lines under three aspects: through biographies of key scholars worked in the field of communication, through concepts and theories that became recognized as parts of communication scholarship, through debates that were going on within the professoriate and also through decisions influenced on establishment of the professional identity of the scholars who studied communication.

         The author indicates that communication scholars pursued five general areas of research: (1) communication as shaper of public opinion; (2) communication as language use; (3) communication as information transmission; (4) communication as developer of relationships; and (5) communication as definer, interpreter, and critic of culture.