Communication theory

There is no unified human communication theory but a collection of communication theories that try to explain localized and specific communication processes and behaviors. What comes closer to a general communication theory is Shannon and Weaver's Information Theory. This is a mathematical model that encompasses all forms of communication, including human communication processes. Human communication research however, despite having adopted the nomenclature, never fully applied these concepts to human communication. There is plenty of speculation as to why but most scholars agree that information theory has a description at too lower a level to describe human communication with parsimony or usefullness.

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Communication is a slippery concept, and while we may casually use the word with some frequency, it is difficult to arrive at a precise definition that is agreeable to most of those who consider themselves communication scholars. Communication is so deeply rooted in human behaviors and the structures of society that it is difficult to think of social or behavioral events that are absent communication.

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We might say that communication consists of transmitting information from one person to another. In fact, many scholars of communication take this as a working definition, and use Lasswell's maxim ("who says what to whom to what effect") as a means of circumscribing the field of communication. Others suggest that there is a ritual process of communication that cannot be artificially abstracted from a particular historical and social context. As a relatively young field of inquiry, it is probably premature to expect a conceptualization of communication that is shared among all or most of those who work in the area. Furthermore, communication theory itself is, in many ways, an attempt to describe and explain precisely what communication is.

Related Topics:
Working definition - Lasswell's

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