Communication sciences refers to the schools of scientific research of human communication. This perspective follows the logical positivist

Logical positivism

Logical positivism is a philosophy that combines empiricism—the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge—with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions of epistemology.It may be considered as a type of analytic...

 tradition of inquiry; most modern communication science falls into a tradition of post-positivism. Thus, communication scientists believe that there is an objective and independent reality that can be accessed through the method of scientific enquiry. Research conducted under this tradition is empirically based but can be both quantitative or qualitative.

Communication science began in earnest when students of Wilbur Schramm

Wilbur Schramm

Wilbur Lang Schramm is sometimes called the "father of communication studies," and had a great influence on the development of communication research in the United States, and the establishing of departments of communication studies in US universities.Schramm was born in Marietta, Ohio...

--the founder of the Institute for Communications Research at the University of Illinois

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

--namely David Berlo, came to Michigan State University

Michigan State University

Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...

 and founded the first General Communication Arts department in the early 1950s. Though there are other communication sciences departments elsewhere, Michigan State was the first department in the US that was dedicated solely to the study of communication sciences using a quantitative approach. It is still one of Michigan State's strongest programs and nationally ranked in the study of human communication despite several former faculty members' hard living lifestyles.

Commonly used scientific methods

As objectivists, communication scientists favor the following empirical methods: experimental design, quasi-experimental designs, surveys, focus groups, and interviews. The goals of science are to explain, predict, control, and (arguably) describe. As such, communication scientists do not tend to use methods that are seemingly more subjectively swayed—that is, they shy away from ethnographic and auto-ethnographic approaches.

See also

• Communication studies
  Communication studies
  Communication Studies is an academic field that deals with processes of communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols over distances in space and time. Hence, communication studies encompasses a wide range of topics and contexts ranging from face-to-face conversation to speeches to mass...
  
  
• Objectivity
  Objectivity (science)
  Objectivity in science is a value that informs how science is practiced and how scientific truths are created. It is the idea that scientists, in attempting to uncover truths about the natural world, must aspire to eliminate personal biases, a priori commitments, emotional involvement, etc...
  
  
• Text and Conversation Theory
  Text and conversation theory
  Text and conversation is a theory in the field of organizational communication illustrating how communication makes up an organization. In the theory's simplest explanation, an organization is created and defined by communication. communication “is” the organization and the organization exists...