The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to communication:

Communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

– activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space.

Essence of communication

Main article: Communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

• Communication theory
  Communication theory
  Communication theory is a field of information and mathematics that studies the technical process of information and the human process of human communication.- History :- Origins :...
  
  
• Development communication
  Development communication
  Development Communication, has been alternatively defined as a type of marketing and public opinion research that is used specifically to develop effective communication or as the use of communication to promote social development...
  
  
• Information
  Information
  Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
  
  
• Information theory
  Information theory
  Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...
  
  
• Semiotics
  Semiotics
  Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
  
  

Fields of communication

• 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...
  
  
• Cognitive Linguistics
  Cognitive linguistics
  In linguistics, cognitive linguistics refers to the branch of linguistics that interprets language in terms of the concepts, sometimes universal, sometimes specific to a particular tongue, which underlie its forms...
  
  
• Conversation Analysis
  Conversation analysis
  Conversation analysis is the study of talk in interaction . CA generally attempts to describe the orderliness, structure and sequential patterns of interaction, whether institutional or in casual conversation.Inspired by ethnomethodology Conversation analysis (commonly abbreviated as CA) is the...
  
  
• Discourse Analysis
  Discourse analysis
  Discourse analysis , or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of approaches to analyzing written, spoken, signed language use or any significant semiotic event....
  
  
• Interpersonal Communication
  Interpersonal communication
  Interpersonal communication is usually defined by communication scholars in numerous ways, usually describing participants who are dependent upon one another. It...
  
  
• Linguistics
  Linguistics
  Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
  
  
• Mass Communication
  Mass communication
  Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of the various means by which individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time...
  
  
• Organizational Communication
  Organizational communication
  Organizational communication is a subfield of the larger discipline of communication studies. Organizational communication, as a field, is the consideration, analysis, and criticism of the role of communication in organizational contexts....
  
  
• Political Communication
  Political communication
  Political communication is a sub-field of political science and communication that deals with the production, dissemination, procession and effects of information, both through media and interpersonally, within a political context...
  
  
• Pragmatics
  Pragmatics
  Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the...
  
  
• Semiotics
  Semiotics
  Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
  
  
• Sociolinguistics
  Sociolinguistics
  Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
  
  

Theories, schools, and approaches

• Theories of communication
• Agenda-setting theory
  Agenda-setting theory
  Agenda-Setting Theory states that the news media have a large influence on audiences, in terms of what stories to consider newsworthy and how much prominence and space to give them. Agenda-setting theory’s main postulate is salience transfer. Salience transfer is the ability of the news media to...
  
  
• Biosemiotics
  Biosemiotics
  Biosemiotics is a growing field that studies the production, action and interpretation of signs in the biological realm...
  
  
• Content analysis
  Content analysis
  Content analysis or textual analysis is a methodology in the social sciences for studying the content of communication. Earl Babbie defines it as "the study of recorded human communications, such as books, websites, paintings and laws."According to Dr...
  
  
• Community structure theory
• Conversation analysis
  Conversation analysis
  Conversation analysis is the study of talk in interaction . CA generally attempts to describe the orderliness, structure and sequential patterns of interaction, whether institutional or in casual conversation.Inspired by ethnomethodology Conversation analysis (commonly abbreviated as CA) is the...
  
  
• Critical theory
  Critical theory
  Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
  
  
• Cues-filtered-out theory
• Cultivation theory
  Cultivation theory
  Cultivation theory is a social theory which examined the long-term effects of television on American audiences of all ages.Developed by George Gerbner and Larry Gross of the University of Pennsylvania, cultivation theory derived from several large-scale research projects as part of an overall...
  
  
• Cultural studies
  Cultural studies
  Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
  
  
• Cybernetics
  Cybernetics
  Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...
  
  
• Decision downloading
  Decision downloading
  Decision downloading refers to communicating a decision to those who have not been involved in the decision-making process.The term “decision downloading” is used to set apart those special situations in which...
  
  
• Diffusion of innovations
  Diffusion of innovations
  Diffusion of Innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Everett Rogers, a professor of rural sociology, popularized the theory in his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations...
  
  
• Dramatisming
• Elaboration likelihood model
  Elaboration likelihood model
  The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion is a model of how attitudes are formed and changed that was developed by R. E. Petty and J. T. Cacioppo in the early 1980s . Central to this model is the "elaboration continuum", which ranges from low elaboration to high elaboration...
  
  
• Ethnomethodology
  Ethnomethodology
  Ethnomethodology is an ethnographic approach to sociological inquiry introduced by the American sociologist Harold Garfinkel . Ethnomethodology's research interest is the study of the everyday methods people use for the production of social order...
  
  
• Framing
  Framing
  Framing or enframing may refer to:* Framing , the most common carpentry work* Framing or Framing effect , terminology used in communication theory, sociology, and other disciplines where it relates to the construction and presentation of a fact or issue "framed" from a particular perspective*...
  
  
• Hermeneutics
• Hypodermic needle model
  Hypodermic needle model
  The hypodermic needle model is a model of communications suggesting that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver...
  
  
• Heuristic-Systematic Model
• Hyperpersonal Model
  Hyperpersonal Model
  The hyperpersonal model is an interpersonal communication theory that suggests that computer-mediated communication can become hyperpersonal because it affords message senders a host of communicative advantages over traditional face-to-face interaction...
  
  
• Information theory
  Information theory
  Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...
  
  
• Knowledge gap hypothesis
  Knowledge gap hypothesis
  - Definition :The knowledge gap hypothesis attempts to explain “the apparent failure of mass publicity to inform the public at large.”...
  
  
• Media ecology
  Media ecology
  Media ecology is a contested term within media studies having different meanings within European and North American contexts. The North American definition refers to aninterdisciplinary field of media theory and media design involving the study of "symbolic environment, or the socially constructed,...
  
  
• Narrative paradigm
  Narrative paradigm
  The Narrative Paradigm is a theory proposed by Walter Fisher that all meaningful communication is a form of storytelling or giving a report of events and so human beings experience and comprehend life as a series of ongoing narratives, each with their own conflicts, characters, beginnings,...
  
  
• Network analysis
  Network analysis
  Network analysis can refer to:* Analysis of general networks: see Network theory.* Electrical network analysis see Network analysis .* Social network analysis.You may also be interested in Network planning and design...
  
  
• Nonviolent Communication
  Nonviolent communication
  Nonviolent Communication is a communication process developed by Marshall Rosenberg beginning in the 1960s. NVC often functions as a conflict resolution process...
  
  
• Opinion leadership
  Opinion leadership
  Opinion leadership is a concept that arises out of the theory of two-step flow of communication propounded by Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz. This theory is one of several models that try to explain the diffusion of innovations, ideas, or commercial products....
  
  
• Political economy
  Political economy
  Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
  
  
• Priming
  Priming
  Priming may refer to:* Priming , a process in which the processing of a target stimulus is aided or altered by the presentation of a previously presented stimulus....
  
  
• Relational dialectics
  Relational dialectics
  Relational dialectics is a concept within communication theory. The theory, first proposed respectively by Baxter and W. K. Rawlins in 1988, defines communication patterns between relationship partners as the result of endemic dialectical tensions. In their description of Relational Dialectics,...
  
  
• Scheme
  Scheme
  Scheme may refer to:* Scheme , a minimalist, multi-paradigm dialect of Lisp* Scheme , a concept in algebraic geometry* Scheme , a figure of speech that changes a sentence's structure-See also:...
  
  
• Social learning theory
  Social learning theory
  -Theory:Social learning theory is derived from the work of Albert Bandura which proposed that social learning occurred through four main stages of imitation:* close contact* imitation of superiors* understanding of concepts* role model behavior...
  
  
• Social construction of reality
• Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE)
• Social Information Processing theory
  Social Information Processing theory
  Social information processing theory is an interpersonal communication theory which proposes that given time and opportunity to interact, relationships between individuals can form in online environments and that online interpersonal relationship development might require more time to develop...
  
  
• Social Penetration Theory
  Social Penetration Theory
  Social penetration theory was formulated by psychology professors Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor as their attempt to describe the dynamics of relational closeness...
  
  
• Spiral of silence
  Spiral of silence
  The spiral of silence is a political science and mass communication theory propounded by the German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann...
  
  
• Strength of Weak Ties
• Structuralism
  Structuralism
  Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
  
  
• Symbolic interactionism
  Symbolic interactionism
  Symbolic Interaction, also known as interactionism, is a sociological theory that places emphasis on micro-scale social interaction to provide subjective meaning in human behavior, the social process and pragmatism.-History:...
  
  
• Technology acceptance model
  Technology acceptance model
  The Technology Acceptance Model is an information systems theory that models how users come to accept and use a technology. The model suggests that when users are presented with a new technology, a number of factors influence their decision about how and when they will use it, notably:* Perceived...
  
  
• Theory of cognitive dissonance
• Theory of Planned Behavior
  Theory of planned behavior
  In psychology, the theory of planned behavior is a theory about the link between attitudes and behavior. It was proposed by Icek Ajzen as an extension of the theory of reasoned action. It is one of the most predictive persuasion theories...
  
  
• Theory of Reasoned Action
  Theory of reasoned action
  The theory of reasoned action , developed by Martin Fishbein and , derived from previous research that started out as the theory of attitude, which led to the study of attitude and behavior...
  
  
• Third-person effect
  Third-person effect
  The third-person effect hypothesis states that a person exposed to a persuasive communication in the mass media sees it as having a greater effect on others than on himself or herself...
  
  
• Two-step flow of communication
  Two-step flow of communication
  - Basic Overview :Also known as the Multistep Flow Model is a theory based on a 1940's study on social influence that states that media effects are indirectly established through the personal influence of opinion leaders...
  
  
• Uses and gratifications
  Uses and gratifications
  Uses and gratifications theory is an approach to understanding mass media and mass communication. The theory discusses how users proactively search for media that will not only meet a given need but enhance knowledge, social interactions and diversion It assumes that members of the audience are...
  
  
• Uncertainty reduction theory
  Uncertainty reduction theory
  Uncertainty Reduction Theory was introduced in 1975 in the paper Some Exploration in Initial Interaction and Beyond: Toward a Developmental Theory of Interpersonal Communication. This theory, a collaborative effort of Charles R. Berger and Richard J. Calabrese, was proposed to predict and explain...
  
  

History of communication

Main article: History of communication

History of communication

The history of communication dates back to prehistory, with significant changes in communication technologies evolving in tandem with shifts in political and economic systems, and by extension, systems of power. Communication can range from very subtle processes of exchange, to full conversations...

• Cave painting
  Cave painting
  Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest European cave paintings date to the Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the paleolithic cave paintings is not known...
  
  
• Early postal systems
• Heliograph
  Heliograph
  A heliograph is a wireless solar telegraph that signals by flashes of sunlight reflected by a mirror. The flashes are produced by momentarily pivoting the mirror, or by interrupting the beam with a shutter...
  
  
• Historical linguistics
  Historical linguistics
  Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
  
  
• History of alphabet
• History of the book
  History of the book
  The history of books follows a suite of technological innovations for books. These improved the quality of text conservation, the access to information, portability, and the cost of production...
  
  
• History of computer science
  History of computer science
  The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of computer science that emerged in the twentieth century, and hinted at in the centuries prior...
  
  
• History of computing
  History of computing
  The history of computing is longer than the history of computing hardware and modern computing technology and includes the history of methods intended for pen and paper or for chalk and slate, with or without the aid of tables...
  
   (see also Timeline of computing
  Timeline of computing
  This article presents a detailed timeline of events in the history of computing. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the related history of computing hardware and history of computer science....
  
  )
• History of computer hardware
• History of Internet
• History of linguistics
  History of linguistics
  Linguistics as a study endeavors to describe and explain the human faculty of language.In ancient civilization, linguistic study was originally motivated by the correct description of classical liturgical language, notably that of Sanskrit grammar by , or by the development of logic and rhetoric...
  
  
• History of mass media
• History of radio
  History of radio
  The early history of radio is the history of technology that produced radio instruments that use radio waves. Within the timeline of radio, many people contributed theory and inventions in what became radio. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy"...
  
  
• History of telegraphy
  Telegraphy
  Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
  
  
  • History of telegraph
• History of telephone
• History of television
  History of television
  The history of television records the work of numerous engineers and inventors in several countries over many decades. The fundamental principles of television were initially explored using electromechanical methods to scan, transmit and reproduce an image...
  
  
• History of writing
  History of writing
  The history of writing records the development of expressing language by letters or other marks. In the history of how systems of representation of language through graphic means have evolved in different human civilizations, more complete writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, systems of...
  
  
• Ideograms
• Origin of language
  Origin of language
  The origin of language is the emergence of language in the human species. This is a highly controversial topic. Empirical evidence is so limited that many regard it as unsuitable for serious scholars. In 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris went so far as to ban debates on the subject...
  
  
• Petroglyphs
• Pictograms
• Proto-language
  Proto-language
  A proto-language in the tree model of historical linguistics is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead.Often the proto-language is not known directly...
  
  
• Semaphore line
• Smoke signals

Forms of communication

• Alphabet
  Alphabet
  An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
  
  
• Body language
  Body language
  Body language is a form of non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Humans send and interpret such signals almost entirely subconsciously....
  
  
• Emotion
  Emotion
  Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
  
  
• Image
  Image
  An image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person.-Characteristics:...
  
  
• Language
  Language
  Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
  
  
• Symbol
  Symbol
  A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
  
  

General modes and types of communication

• Autocommunication
  Autocommunication
  Autocommunication is a term used in communication studies, semiotics and other cultural studies to describe communication from and to oneself. This is distinguished from the more traditionally studied form of communication where the sender and the receiver of the message are separate...
  
  
• Empathy
  Empathy
  Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
  
  
• Computer-mediated communication
  Computer-mediated communication
  Computer-mediated communication is defined as any communicative transaction that occurs through the use of two or more networked computers...
  
  
• Health communication
  Health communication
  Health communication may be defined as“The art and technique of informing, influencing, and motivating individual, institutional, and public audiences about important health issues...
  
  
• Intrapersonal communication
  Intrapersonal communication
  Intrapersonal communication is language use or thought internal to the communicator. It can be useful to envision intrapersonal communication occurring in the mind of the individual in a model which contains a sender, receiver, and feedback loop.-Definitions:...
  
  
• Intercultural communication
  Intercultural communication
  Intercultural communication is a form of global communication. It is used to describe the wide range of communication problems that naturally appear within an organization made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Intercultural communication is...
  
  
• Interpersonal communication
  Interpersonal communication
  Interpersonal communication is usually defined by communication scholars in numerous ways, usually describing participants who are dependent upon one another. It...
  
  
• Mass communication
  Mass communication
  Mass communication is the term used to describe the academic study of the various means by which individuals and entities relay information through mass media to large segments of the population at the same time...
  
  
• Non-verbal communication
• Organizational communication
  Organizational communication
  Organizational communication is a subfield of the larger discipline of communication studies. Organizational communication, as a field, is the consideration, analysis, and criticism of the role of communication in organizational contexts....
  
  
• People skills
  People skills
  According to the Portland Business Journal, people skills are often described as:* understanding ourselves and moderating our responses* talking effectively and empathizing accurately* building relationships of trust, respect and productive interactions....
  
  
• Persuasion
  Persuasion
  Persuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding or bringing oneself or another toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means.- Methods :...
  
  
• Propaganda
  Propaganda
  Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
  
  
• Public speaking
  Public speaking
  Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners...
  
  
• Reading
• Rhetoric
  Rhetoric
  Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
  
  
• Small-group communication
  Small-group communication
  Communication in small groups is interpersonal communication within groups of between 3 and 20 individuals. This generally takes place in a context that mixes interpersonal interactions with social clustering.- Group communication :...
  
  
• Speech
• Translation
  Translation
  Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
  
  
• Writing
  Writing
  Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
  
  

Communication industries and media vocations

• Advertising
  Advertising
  Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
  
  
• Book
  Book
  A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
  
  
• Communication technology
• Computers
• Computer arts
• Computer mediated communication
• Computer networks
• Conversation
  Conversation
  Conversation is a form of interactive, spontaneous communication between two or more people who are following rules of etiquette.Conversation analysis is a branch of sociology which studies the structure and organization of human interaction, with a more specific focus on conversational...
  
  
• Film
  Film
  A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
  
  
• Graphic arts
  Graphic arts
  A type of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of art forms. Graphic art is typically two-dimensional and includes calligraphy, photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, lithography, typography, serigraphy , and bindery. Graphic art also consists of drawn plans and layouts for interior...
  
  
• Graphic Design
  Graphic design
  Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
  
  
• Internet
  Internet
  The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
  
  
• Journalism
  Journalism
  Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
  
  
• Library
  Library
  In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
  
  
• Mail
  Mail
  Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
  
  
• Marketing communications
  Marketing communications
  Marketing Communications are messages and related media used to communicate with a market...
  
  
• Mass media
  Mass media
  Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
  
  
• Media arts
• Morse Code
  Morse code
  Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
  
  
• News media
  News media
  The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
  
  
• Newspaper
  Newspaper
  A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
  
  
• Printing
  Printing
  Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
  
  
• Public Relations
  Public relations
  Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
  
  
• Radio
  Radio
  Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
  
  
• Recording
  Recording
  Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, if an auditory medium, a recording....
  
  
• Small-group communication
  Small-group communication
  Communication in small groups is interpersonal communication within groups of between 3 and 20 individuals. This generally takes place in a context that mixes interpersonal interactions with social clustering.- Group communication :...
  
  
• Technical writing
  Technical writing
  Technical writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of writing used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, engineering, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology....
  
  
• Telecommunications
• Telephone
  Telephone
  The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
  
  
• Television
  Television
  Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
  
  
• Video
  Video
  Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
  
  
• Writing
  Writing
  Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
  
  

General communication terms

• Censorship
  Censorship
  thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
  
  
• Community structure
  Community structure
  In the study of complex networks, a network is said to have community structure if the nodes of the network can be easily grouped into sets of nodes such that each set of nodes is densely connected internally...
  
  
• Cultural imperialism
  Cultural imperialism
  Cultural imperialism is the domination of one culture over another. Cultural imperialism can take the form of a general attitude or an active, formal and deliberate policy, including military action. Economic or technological factors may also play a role...
  
  
• Democracy
  Democracy
  Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
  
  
• Dialectic
  Dialectic
  Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
  
  
• Digital divide
  Digital divide
  The Digital Divide refers to inequalities between individuals, households, business, and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels in access to information and communication technologies and Internet connectivity and in the knowledge and skills needed to effectively use the information...
  
  
• Freedom of the press
  Freedom of the press
  Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
  
  
• Freedom of speech
  Freedom of speech
  Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
  
  
• Hegemony
  Hegemony
  Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
  
  
• Identity
  Identity (social science)
  Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...
  
  
• Imagined community
• Information society
  Information society
  The aim of the information society is to gain competitive advantage internationally through using IT in a creative and productive way. An information society is a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic,...
  
  
• Late capitalism
  Late capitalism
  "Late capitalism" is a term used by neo-Marxists to refer to capitalism from about 1945 onwards, with the implication that it is a historically limited stage rather than an eternal feature of all future human society. Postwar German sociologists needed a term to describe contemporary society...
  
  
• Media imperialism
  Media imperialism
  Media imperialism is a theory based upon an over-concentration of mass media from larger nations as a significant variable in negatively affecting smaller nations, in which the national identity of smaller nations is lessened or lost due to media homogeneity inherent in mass media from the larger...
  
  
• Morpheme
  Morpheme
  In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
  
  
• Nationalism
  Nationalism
  Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
  
  
• Phoneme
  Phoneme
  In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
  
  
• Postmodernity
  Postmodernity
  Postmodernity is generally used to describe the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity...
  
  
• Public sphere
  Public sphere
  The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action...
  
  
• Semiotics
  Semiotics
  Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
  
  
• Social capital
  Social capital
  Social capital is a sociological concept, which refers to connections within and between social networks. The concept of social capital highlights the value of social relations and the role of cooperation and confidence to get collective or economic results. The term social capital is frequently...
  
  
• Social network
  Social network
  A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
  
  
• Sophist
• Stereotyping
• Stigma
  Social stigma
  Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
  
  
• Syllable
  Syllable
  A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
  
  
• Universal service
  Universal service
  Universal service is an economic, legal and business term used mostly in regulated industries, referring to the practice of providing a baseline level of services to every resident of a country...
  
  
• Avatar (virtual reality)
  Avatar (virtual reality)
  In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
  
  

Communication scholars

• Theodor Adorno
• Aristotle
  Aristotle
  Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
  
  
• Roland Barthes
  Roland Barthes
  Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
  
  
• Gregory Bateson
  Gregory Bateson
  Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe...
  
  
• Walter Benjamin
  Walter Benjamin
  Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
  
  
• Kenneth Burke
  Kenneth Burke
  Kenneth Duva Burke was a major American literary theorist and philosopher. Burke's primary interests were in rhetoric and aesthetics.-Personal history:...
  
  
• Manuel Castells
  Manuel Castells
  Manuel Castells is a sociologist especially associated with information society and communication research....
  
  
• Cicero
  Cicero
  Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
  
  
• Noam Chomsky
  Noam Chomsky
  Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
  
  
• Paul D'Angelo
• Karl W. Deutsch
• Walter Fisher
  Walter Fisher
  Credited with formalizing Kenneth Burke's Dramatism, Walter Fisher introduced the narrative paradigm to communication theory. Fisher is Professor Emeritus at the Annenberg School for Communication....
  
  
• George Gerbner
  George Gerbner
  George Gerbner was a professor of Communication and the founder of cultivation theory.Born in Budapest, Hungary, he immigrated to the United States in late 1939. Gerbner earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley in 1942...
  
  
• G. Thomas Goodnight
  G. Thomas Goodnight
  G. Thomas Goodnight is an American argumentation and rhetorical scholar.He is a professor and director of doctoral studies in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California...
  
  
• Jürgen Habermas
  Jürgen Habermas
  Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
  
  
• Max Horkheimer
  Max Horkheimer
  Max Horkheimer was a German-Jewish philosopher-sociologist, famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the 'Frankfurt School' of social research. His most important works include The Eclipse of Reason and, in collaboration with Theodor Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment...
  
  
• Harold Innis
  Harold Innis
  Harold Adams Innis was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory and Canadian economic history. The affiliated Innis College at the University of Toronto is named for him...
  
  
• Roman Jakobson
  Roman Jakobson
  Roman Osipovich Jakobson was a Russian linguist and literary theorist.As a pioneer of the structural analysis of language, which became the dominant trend of twentieth-century linguistics, Jakobson was among the most influential linguists of the century...
  
  
• Irving Janis
  Irving Janis
  Irving Lester Janis was a research psychologist at Yale University and a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley most famous for his theory of "groupthink" which described the systematic errors made by groups when taking collective decisions...
  
  
• Wendell Johnson
  Wendell Johnson
  Dr. Wendell Johnson was an American psychologist, speech pathologist and author and was a proponent of General Semantics . He was born in Roxbury, Kansas and died in Iowa City, Iowa. The Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center, part of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is named after...
  
  
• D. Lawrence Kincaid
  D. Lawrence Kincaid
  D. Lawrence Kincaid is best known among communication theorists as the proponent of the convergence model of communication, a nonlinear model of communication wherein two communicators strive to reach "mutual understanding." In recent years this model has been particularly popular among proponents...
  
  
• Walter Lippman
• Herbert Marcuse
  Herbert Marcuse
  Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...
  
  
• George Herbert Mead
  George Herbert Mead
  George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded as one of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general.-...
  
  
• Marshall McLuhan
  Marshall McLuhan
  Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...
  
  
• Desmond Morris
  Desmond Morris
  Desmond John Morris, born 24 January 1928 in Purton, north Wiltshire, is a British zoologist and ethologist, as well as a popular anthropologist. He is also known as a painter, television presenter and popular author.-Life:...
  
  
• Maxwell McCombs
• Walter J. Ong
  Walter J. Ong
  Father Walter Jackson Ong, Ph.D. , was an American Jesuit priest, professor of English literature, cultural and religious historian and philosopher. His major interest was in exploring how the transition from orality to literacy influenced culture and changed human consciousness...
  
  
• Vance Packard
  Vance Packard
  Vance Packard was an American journalist, social critic, and author.- Life and career :He was born in Granville Summit, Pennsylvania to parents Philip J. Packard and Mabel Case Packard...
  
  
• Charles Sanders Peirce
• Plato
  Plato
  Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
  
  
• John C. Pollock
• Neil Postman
  Neil Postman
  Neil Postman was an American author, media theorist and cultural critic, who is best known by the general public for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Ourselves to Death. For more than forty years, he was associated with New York University...
  
  
• Nora C. Quebral
  Nora C. Quebral
  Nora Cruz Quebral is a pioneering figure in the discipline of Development Communication in Asia and is often referred to as the "Mother of Development Communication" giving birth not only to an academic discipline but to a new crop of scholars in the field as well. Among her students were...
  
  
• Quintilian
  Quintilian
  Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing...
  
  
• I. A. Richards
  I. A. Richards
  Ivor Armstrong Richards was an influential English literary critic and rhetorician....
  
  
• Everett M. Rogers
• 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...
  
  
• Claude Shannon
• Deborah Tannen
• James W. Tankard, Jr.
  James W. Tankard, Jr.
  James William Tankard, Jr. , communication scholar, author of The Statistical Pioneers and coauthor of Communication Theories: Origins, Methods, Uses ....
  
  
• Warren Weaver
  Warren Weaver
  Warren Weaver was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator...
  
  
• Bob Woodward
  Bob Woodward
  Robert Upshur Woodward is an American investigative journalist and non-fiction author. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post....
  
  

External links

• A brief history of communication across ages
• Communicating for change and impact
• How Human Communication Fails (Tampere University of Technology)