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The Study of Communication

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If you’ve never studied communication before, right now you might feel like you know more about messages and relationships and communication contexts than you ever thought you’d need to know! But there is still so much more to study that can profoundly affect your friendships, romantic relationships, group memberships, career, and overall success in life. You’ve seen that communicating well—effectively, appropriately, and ethically—is not an innate ability; it is a process we can all improve on throughout our lives.

Communicating well is not an innate ability; it is a process we can all improve on throughout our lives.

So what’s behind this discipline? What do communication scholars (like those of us who wrote this book) do? Well, in democracies from ancient Greece to the United States, scholars realized early on that communication was crucial to helping people participate in the government and civic life. Public speaking, for example, was taught in America’s first universities, partly to reinforce the powerful effect that speaking out can have on society (Dues & Brown, 2004). A similar concern for the public’s welfare lay behind the addition of professional journalism courses to university curricula early in the twentieth century. At that time, the sensationalistic excesses of the “penny press” highlighted the need for newspeople who were trained in both the technical aspects of reporting and the ethical responsibilities of journalists in a free society.

Today, communication continues to be a dynamic and multifaceted discipline focused on improving interactions and relationships, including those between two individuals, between individuals of different cultures, between speakers and audiences, within small groups, in large organizations, and among nations and international organizations. (Table 1.2 illustrates some of the major areas of specialization and the focus of each.) The research in our field draws clear connections between these assorted types of relationships. Furthermore, the principles of communication laid out in this chapter can be successfully applied to various communication situations and contexts. For example, as technology advances, communication becomes more complicated, expansive, and sometimes unclear. For most of human existence, an interpersonal relationship was limited to face-to-face interactions, later enhanced by mediated communication via the written word and the telephone. But today, individuals strike up personal and business relationships through e-mail, social-networking groups, and phone contact across the globe, often without ever meeting in person.

Table 1.2 Common Areas of Specialization in Communication Research Today
Area of Study	Focus of Study
Rhetorical theory and criticism	The analysis of speeches and other public messages
Argumentation and debate	Persuasion, reasoning, logic, and presentation
Interpersonal communication	Basic two-person (dyadic) processes
Intergroup communication	Ways in which communication within and between groups affects social relationships
Relational communication	Interpersonal communication in close relationships such as romances, families, and friendships
Small group communication	The function, dynamics, and performance of group members
Organizational communication	Communication efficiency and effectiveness in businesses and other organizations
Mass communication and media studies	The design and production of media messages and the identification and evaluation of media effects
Political communication	The study of politicians, voters, and audiences and their impact on one another
Public relations	The production of messages designed to improve the image of individuals and organizations
Intercultural communication	Communication rules and values across cultures and co-cultures
Family communication	Communication between parents and children and between generations
Health communication	The communication messages of health care providers and patients
Conflict management	The reduction of adversarial messages in personal, organizational, and community contexts
Nonverbal communication	Nonlanguage codes that communicate
Communication technology and telecommunication studies	Development and application of new technologies in all communication situations

Throughout this book, we’ll explore how communication skills, concepts, and theories apply to various communication situations and offer scholarship from four distinct areas of the discipline:

Basic communication processes. All communication involves the basic processes of perception, intercultural interaction, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, and listening. Skills that we develop in these areas inform the way we handle communication in a variety of contexts, from talking with friends to making presentations in front of a class or a large public audience. In the remainder of Part 1 of this book, you will learn how these basic processes affect every communication situation.
Interpersonal communication. As social animals, we human beings cannot avoid forming interpersonal relationships and interacting with other individuals. Interpersonal communication is the study of communication between dyads, or pairs of individuals. Most students find this study particularly relevant to their lives as they negotiate their friendships, romantic relationships, and family relationships. We investigate the exciting, nerve-racking, fun, confusing, tumultuous, and rewarding world of relationships and conflict in Part 2 of this book. An in-depth analysis of interviewing—one of the most daunting and important types of interpersonal communication—is offered in Appendix A at the back of the book.
Group and organizational communication. If you’ve ever tried to run a professional meeting, manage a class or work group, or plan a day trip for a bunch of friends, you know that as the number of people involved in a conversation, an activity, or a project increases, communication becomes more complicated. By studying interactions in groups and organizations, communication scholars help create strategies for managing the flow of information and interactions among individuals in groups. We’ll explore this in Part 3 of the book.
Public speaking. Don’t panic! We’re going to provide a lot of help and guidance to assist you as you become a competent public speaker. Even if you’ve never had to speak in front of a group before, in Part 4 you’ll learn not only how to research and develop a presentation but also how to connect with your audience on a personal level. We also offer tips on becoming a more critical audience member, whether you are engaged with a speaker in a lecture hall, at a protest rally, or at a professional conference.

We are confident that this book will provide you with an enjoyable reading experience as well as help you improve your communication. As a result, your life, your work, your relationships, and your ability to speak out will all be enhanced.

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