What is Communication?

What is Communication/Media Studies?

Communication Studies and Media Studies are interdisciplinary approaches to relational communication and mass media. Scholars from various fields have contributed to our understanding of communication. Our department and our field are characterized by this combination of approaches. In some ways, the study of communication is very much like the social sciences (anthropology and sociology in particular) and psychology (although we're more concerned with what happens between us than what happens inside us). In other ways, communication is like the humanities when it looks at rhetoric, semiotics, and history. There's even a natural sciences influence in our understanding of human behavior as a function of genetic makeup and evolutionary patterns.

What's the difference between a major in communication and, say, anthropology?

This table illustrates Communication/Media Studies approaches and the influences of other disciplines on our field. In this example, I look at how we might examine two kinds of social phenomena: a group of people at a party and a war among several nations.

Social Scientific approaches

Psychology

Communication/Media Studies

Historic - Literary-Humanistic studies

Biological -Scientific approaches

A Party

Nature of connections – relationships

Rituals

Power relationships

Social pathology

Motivations

Needs

Cognitive experience

Behavior learning

Social organization

Abnormal psychology

Interpersonal communication skills

Topics in relationship beginnings, maintenance

Courtship communication

Discourse analysis (registers, phatic, persuasive, affinity seeking, etc.)

Nonverbal communication (eye contact, haptics, kinesics, proxemics, chonemics, etc.)

Role playing & taking, performance teams

Attention and immediacy

Patterns of activity

Communication problems

Cultural changes and implications

Meanings

Historic trends

Design & fashion

Artifacts

Narratives

Social criticism

Genetic impulses

Physical actions and limits

Biological causes of behavior

A War

International relations

Cultural differences

Economic relationships

Effects on groups involved

Psychological effects on individuals

Motivations to violence for individuals & groups

Group psychology

Psychology of authority

Intercultural communication

Journalism practices

Propaganda

Rhetoric

Information diffusion

Agenda setting

Media representations

Media effects

Historical events, causes

Historical determinism

Ethics of actions

Literature & criticism

Nature of humans

Animal cognates

Genetic causes

Ecological implications

Health and environmental implications

Communication at WestConn