Now that you have a better understanding of what communication is, let’s look at how people have studied communication throughout the ages, and the types of communication that teachers and scholars focus on today. Understanding the past, present, and future of the communication field will help you apply what you learn to your everyday life.

The authors of this book, Steve and Joe, both started college with the goal of becoming lawyers. But their plans—and their lives—changed when they began to study communication. For Joe, the turning point came during an afternoon jog with an attorney named Tom Roebuck, who occasionally trained with Joe’s university cross-country team. While talking about classes and potential majors, Tom told Joe, “I can’t think of any better preparation for law school than a communication degree.” The next day, Joe switched his major. As he continued his course work, he grew fascinated with communication as a field of study and ultimately decided to pursue a teaching career instead of going to law school.

Steve’s story is similar. As an undergrad at the University of Washington, he visited his professor, Mac Parks, during office hours. While chatting about a reading from class, Steve remarked that he had always been fascinated by how people communicate, but that he had never pursued this interest because he didn’t know how it translated into a collegiate major or profession. Mac then described all of the things that Steve could potentially do with a communication degree: sales, marketing, public relations, publishing, lobbying, consulting, broadcasting, and so forth. When Steve confessed that his true passion was the study of romantic relationship problems such as jealousy, betrayal, and deception, Mac asked Steve, “Have you ever thought about going into the field?” Steve admitted that he didn’t even know what “the field of communication” was. When Mac told him, “You could spend your life studying and teaching about close relationships,” Steve suddenly realized that the field of communication—not the law—was his calling.

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For some of you, the communication class you’re taking (for which you are reading this book) will be your only exposure to the field. For others, this class—and other courses in communication—may inspire you to become communication majors. You might even experience the same thing Joe and Steve did: the realization that you want to devote your life to studying and teaching communication. But regardless of whether you take one communication class, make communication your college major, or build a career involving communication, learning about communication connects you to a scholarly field that dates back thousands of years.