User:SRatty1652/Communication studies

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Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in different cultures. Communication is commonly defined as giving, receiving or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions effectively. Communication studies is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge that encompasses a range of topics, from face-to-face conversation at a level of individual agency and interaction to social and cultural communication systems at a macro level.

As a field of study, communication is applied to journalism, business, mass media, public relations, marketing, news and television broadcasting, interpersonal and intercultural communication, education, public administration—and beyond. As all spheres of human activity and conveyance are affected by the interplay between social communication structure and individual agency, communication studies has gradually expanded its focus to other domains, such as health, medicine, economy, military and penal institutions, the Internet, social capital, and the role of communicative activity in the development of scientific knowledge.

Communication studies integrates aspects of both social sciences and the humanities. As a social science, the discipline overlaps with sociology, psychology, anthropology, biology, political science, economics, and public policy. From a humanities perspective, communication is concerned with rhetoric and persuasion (traditional graduate programs in communication studies trace their history to the rhetoricians of Ancient Greece). Humanities approaches to communication often overlap with history, philosophy, English, and cultural studies.

Origin
Communication, a natural human behavior, became a topic of study in the 20th century. When World War I ended, the interest in studying communication intensified. The methods of communication that had been used during the war had challenged the beliefs many people had on the limits of it that existed prior to these events. Innovations were invented during this period of time that no one had ever seen before, like the aircraft telephones and throat microphones. However, new ways of communicating that had been discovered, especially the use of morse code through portable morse code machines, helped troops to communicate in a much more rapid pace than ever before. This then sparked ideas for even more advanced ways of communication to later be created and discovered.

The study was fully recognized as a legitimate discipline after World War II. Prior to being established as its own discipline, communication studies, was formed from three other major studies no: psychology, sociology, and political science. Today, this accepted discipline now also encompasses more modern forms of communication studies as well, such as gender and communication, intercultural communication, political communication, health communication, and organizational communication. The institutionalization of communication studies in U.S. higher education and research has often been traced to Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where early pioneers of the field worked after the Second World War.

Wilbur Schramm is considered one of the founders of the field of communication studies in the United States. He was the first individual to identify himself as a communication scholar in the United States; he created some of the first academic degree-granting programs with communication in their name; and he trained the first U.S. generation of communication scholars. Schramm had a background in English literature and developed communication studies partly by merging existing programs in speech communication, rhetoric, and journalism. He also edited a textbook The Process and Effects of Mass Communication (1954) that helped define the field, partly by claiming Paul Lazarsfeld, Harold Lasswell, Carl Hovland, and Kurt Lewin as its founding forefathers.

Paul Lazarsfeld is acknowledged for his significant impact on communication research from the mid 19th century His contributions encompassed theoretical explorations, in-depth analyses of media effects in real-life contexts, methodological innovations for large-scale research, and the establishment of research laboratories.

Harold Lasswell emerged as a significant figure, known for his theory on the communication process. During the mid-19th century, his model of communication highlighted three functions within society: first, the surveillance of the environment to reveal threats and opportunities impacting the community's values and its components; second, the correlation of societal elements to formulate responses to the environment; and third, the transmission of social heritage.

The first college of communication was founded at Michigan State University in 1958, led by scholars from Schramm's original ICR and dedicated to studying communication scientifically using a quantitative approach. MSU was soon followed by important departments of communication at Purdue University, University of Texas-Austin, Stanford University, University of Iowa, University of Illinois, University of Pennsylvania, The University of Southern California, and Northwestern University. Associations related to Communication Studies were founded or expanded during the 1950s. The National Society for the Study of Communication (NSSC) was founded in 1950 to encourage scholars to pursue communication research as a social science. This Association launched the Journal of Communication in the same year as its founding. Like many communication associations founded around this decade, the name of the association changed with the field. In 1968 the name changed to the International Communication Association (ICA).

 North America 

In the United States and majority and North America, undergraduate curricula aim to prepare students to interrogate the nature of communication in society, and the development of communication as a specific field.

The National Communication Association (NCA) recognizes several distinct but often overlapping specializations within the broader communication discipline including: technology, critical-cultural, health, intercultural, interpersonal-small group, mass communication, organizational, political, rhetorical, and environmental communication. Students take courses in these subject areas. Other programs and courses often integrated in communication programs include[ journalism, rhetoric, film criticism, theatre, public relations, political science (e.g., political campaign strategies, public speaking, effects of media on elections), as well as radio, television, computer-mediated communication, film production, and new media.

With the early influence of federal institutional inquiries, notably the 1951 Massey Commission, which "investigated the overall state of culture in Canada", the study of communication in Canada has frequently focused on the development of a cohesive national culture, and on infrastructural empires of social and material circulation. Although influenced by the American Communication tradition and British Cultural Studies, Communication studies in Canada has been more directly oriented toward the state and the policy apparatus, for example the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Influential thinkers from the Canadian communication tradition include Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, Florian Sauvageau, Gertrude Robinson, Marc Raboy, Dallas Smythe, James R. Taylor, François Cooren, Gail Guthrie Valaskakis and George Grant.

Communication studies within Canada are a relatively new discipline, however, there are programs and departments to support and teach this topic in about 13 Canadian universities and many colleges as well. The Communication et information from Laval, and the Canadian Journal of Communication from McGill University in Montréal, are two journals that exist in Canada. There are also organizations and associations, both national and in Québec, that appeal to the specific interests that are targeted towards these academics. These specific journals consist of representatives from the industry of communication, the government, and members of the public as a whole.

 Europe 

Two of the founders of communication studies, Paul Lazarsfeld and Harold Lasswell, were influenced by European origins, where the foundational concepts were established roughly 50 to 100 years before their development in America. These ideas were refined in Europe and eventually transferred to the United States, becoming more adaptable for global application. Lasswell's early studies involved time spent in Germany, contributing to the use of European knowledge. The historical interest in mass communication dates back significantly, tracing to figures like Karl Marx and Alexis de Tocqueville, who contributed to the discourse on communication through their writings and analyses in the press during the 19th century. Among these, Karl Buecher, a German journalist, played a pivotal role in this new field, creating the term "Zeitungskunde," loosely translated as mass communication.

Business
Main article: Business communication

Business communication emerged as a field of study in the late 20th century, due to the centrality of communication within business relationships. The focus of the field is usually placed on the demands of employers, which is more universally understood by the revision of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of business standards to emphasize written and oral communication as an important characteristic in the curriculum. Business communication studies, therefore, revolve around the, ever changing, written and oral communication aspects directly related to the field of business. Implementation of modern business communication curriculums are enhancing the study of business communication as a whole, while further preparing those to be able to effectively communicate in the business community.

Healthcare
Health communication is a multidisciplinary field that practices the application of evidence, strategic planning, frameworks, and creative approaches to communication in order to advance the well-being of people and populations. The term was first coined in 1975 by the International Communication Association and, in 1997, Health communication was officially recognized in the broader fields of Public Health Education and Health Promotion by the American Public Health Association. The discipline integrates components of various theories and models, with a focus on social marketing. It uses marketing to develop efforts and interventions made to promote positive behavior changes. This emergence affected several dynamics of the healthcare system. It brought elevated awareness to different avenues including promotional activities and communication between heath professionals and their employees, patients, and constituents. Attempts to establish marketing-oriented organizations emphasized the global distribution of information, highlighting theories related to communication, the communication process, and the techniques employed for communication in various contexts. Now, health care organizations of all types are using things like social media. Uses encompass engaging with the community and patients, boosting organizational visibility, promoting products and services, creating a platform for updates on activities, promotions, and fundraising, offering a platform for patient resources and education, as well as delivering customer service and support.

Further information: Medical writing