Communication Theory: An Overview

Author: Hu Zhengrong
Editor-in-Chief: Han Wangchen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features:
Section: Chapter The Origin of Communication Studies
Communication studies originated in the 1920s and 1930s of this century and formed as a discipline in the 1940s and 1950s. Since then, the status of communication studies in academia and theoretical circles has been increasingly elevated, while its influence in practical fields has also expanded.
Section: The Rise of Communication Studies
We regard the 1940s and 1950s of this century as the birth period of communication studies. However, the attention and emphasis of human society on information dissemination have existed since ancient times. Some of these concerns evolved into the study of information dissemination activities.
I. Communication Studies Before the Rise of Communication Research
Communication studies represent the maturation of communication research, enabling the use of its academic scope, research methods, and comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth scientific research. Examining the communication research activities before the emergence of communication studies will greatly benefit our understanding of the origin, development, and academic tradition of communication studies.
We know that human communication activities are as ancient as human history. Human society is built on the foundation of interaction using symbols. Since the establishment of human communication activities, the attention and reflection on communication phenomena have never ceased. The earliest communication research can be traced back to ancient Greece and China's Spring and Autumn Period. In various ancient texts, such as Aristotle's Rhetoric in ancient Greece and China's Analects, there is a considerable amount of research and exploration on communication phenomena, including many insightful conclusions. From that time on, many scholars have delved into communication phenomena in their respective research fields, such as the philosophers Rousseau and Montesquieu. Chinese scholars have also summarized many insights into communication activities through long-term practice. Although early communication research proposed many valuable viewpoints for later generations, none of them could achieve the transformation from communication research to communication studies. This transformation was actually a leap, involving the formation and establishment of the independence of academic research, the completeness of academic categories, the scientificity of research methods, and the systematicity of research results. The true recognition of the essence of communication activities, the use of one's own disciplinary categories to study communication, and the understanding of communication laws, leading to the emergence of communication studies, occurred at the beginning of this century. At that time, human cognitive and research capabilities greatly improved against the backdrop of disciplinary explosion; additionally, human communication activities and their impact on the external environment expanded, forming an independent communication industry that grew increasingly stronger.
II. The Background of the Rise of Communication Studies
As mentioned earlier, communication research originated in the 1920s and 1930s of this century and developed into a discipline in the 1940s and 1950s. The formation of communication studies was based on fundamental prerequisites, and its initial emergence in the United States was also rooted in historical context.