1.1: What is Communication Research?

When we consider rhetoric, the study of the art of persuasive speaking, the history of communication research can be traced back to the days of Aristotle. You will learn more about rhetoric in your public speaking and communication theory courses, so we won’t take a deep dive into it here, but the larger point is that humans have been interested in studying communication since 300 B.C. Modern communication research and efforts to define and “model” the process of communication, however, is typically traced back to the early 20th century.

Walter Lippmann’s (1922) book Public Opinion is a seminal piece in the early study of communication. Lippmann’s (1922) focus on communication and democracy might sound familiar to you; his objective was to highlight problems facing democracy by discussing how public opinion consists of “pictures inside people’s heads [that] do not automatically correspond with the world outside” (p. 19). He argued that people’s access to facts are often limited, thus public opinions are often misleading and inaccurate, but yet we still tend to collectively act upon them. John Dewey’s (1927) book The Public and its Problems took a similar view of the communication process, but he had a more optimistic view, “When communication occurs, all natural events are subject to reconsideration and revision; they are re-adapted to meet the requirements of conversation, whether it be public discourse or that preliminary discourse termed thinking” (p. 132). Both Lippmann and Dewey set the stage for future study of communication by highlighting its importance in social life, democracy, and community.

Upon the founding of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 1958, publisher and ambassador Walter Annenberg wrote:

"Every human advancement or reversal can be understood through communication. The right to free communication carries with it responsibility to respect the dignity of others – and this must be recognized as irreversible. Educating students to effectively communicate this message and to be of service to all people is the enduring mission of this school."

The scholars who helped establish the Annenberg School set the stage for the future of teaching and researching communication. Under George Gerbner, the second dean of the school from 1964 until 1989, the school moved communication research beyond either a strict medium (radio, television, speech) or professional training basis to a more theoretical understanding of communication. The mission of the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania is to produce cutting-edge research, sharing the work to help expand the public’s and policy makers’ understanding of communication, educate graduate and undergraduate students to move forward the discipline as well as encourage students to be better consumers of communication.

Fields of Communication

For a comprehensive overview of the fields of communication (and career options for each category) visit https://www.communications-major.com/. Reading through this list will help you understand the skills required in the communication professions, and you can discover which types of jobs appeal to you the most. Many of these fields overlap. Regardless of what career path you choose, you will need to be a skilled writer and speaker, understand digital technology, and develop the ability to analyze information and think critically. When you determine which path is a good fit for you, choose from one of the four majors in the School of Communication and Media:

Journalism and Emerging Media

(http://chss.kennesaw.edu/socm/programs/bsjem.php)

Whether you are navigating the media-rich culture as a critical thinker, learning to write and produce news and feature stories as a journalist, or are gaining hands-on experience in digital video and audio as a social media expert, Kennesaw State's Journalism and Emerging Media program offers endless possibilities.

Learn the latest industry trends from faculty members who are award-winning professionals, including reporters, editors and international correspondents at the Associated Press, the Atlanta JournalConstitution , CNN, NPR, commercial radio stations and various newspapers. The Journalism and Emerging Media major offers a professionally-focused, marketplace-relevant, and theoretically-rigorous program. It includes courses in news writing, media law, digital media production, sports reporting, investigative reporting, and community-based capstone experience. It encourages students to enroll in a forcredit internship.

Media and Entertainment

(http://chss.kennesaw.edu/socm/programs/bsmes.php)

The Media and Entertainment major invites students to explore the critical ways in which communication and converged media connect with and affect our lives, society, and culture. The program focuses on the forms and effects of media, including radio, film, television, print, and electronic media, and requires that students demonstrate basic digital media production skills. Our students are critically engaged with creative analysis, production, and research into traditional and emerging forms of media. The curriculum emphasizes media history, media institutions, theory and research, production, ethics, policy, management, and technology and their effects on contemporary life.

The program offers both theoretical and applied approaches to the study and production of media. We define “entertainment” as “any media or communication function that is used for entertainment purposes” when considering areas of study. Thus, the field of media and entertainment is very broad and includes everything from film, television, and radio pre-production, production, and post-production; to corporate, government, and non-profit communications and digital media production; to jobs in theater, music, museums, theme parks, sports, travel and tourism, and gaming.

Organizational and Professional Communication

(http://chss.kennesaw.edu/socm/programs/bsopc.php)

Organizational and Professional Communication professionals study the role of communication in increasing corporate productivity and employee satisfaction. KSU is the only Georgia institution offering an undergraduate concentration in Organizational and Professional Communication. Organizational and Professional Communication students learn the skills they need to develop employee training programs, training manuals, and employee handbooks. Students also conduct communication audits at area companies to measure employee satisfaction with company communication practices. Students often intern in corporate human resources or training and development departments.

Public Relations

(http://chss.kennesaw.edu/socm/programs/bspr.php)

The Public Relations major at Kennesaw State University offers a professionally-focused, marketplace-relevant, and theoretically-rigorous academic program for aspiring public relations communicators throughout Metro Atlanta and Northwest Georgia. Kennesaw State is one of only three universities in the state of Georgia to offer a specific major in the ever-evolving discipline of Public Relations. The major offers students a public relations education that includes public relations principles, case study analysis, public relations writing, crisis communication, graphic design for organizational publications, persuasion methods and strategies, and use of social media and other multimedia communication strategies in public relations. Internships and study tours to New York and Atlanta public relations agencies supplement the traditional classroom and online learning settings.

For a list of potential communication-based employers in the state of Georgia, check out this page: https://www.communications-major.com/georgia/

Professional Organizations

In the field of communication research, there are several regional, national, and international professional organizations for educators, students, and communication practitioners. Each organization has a code of ethics, or best practices, for the profession and for training and developing the next generation of researchers and professors. These nonprofit organizations hold conventions/ conferences where communication students and scholars come together to present research, have roundtable discussions, and discuss recent innovations in the field. Typically, these organizations have divisions and interest groups devoted to the various categories of scholarship that fall under the “communication” umbrella. Examples include divisions devoted specifically to journalism, public relations, mass communication and society, communication theory, advertising, health communication, technology, cultural and critical studies, history, law and policy, ethics, gender/women’s studies, entertainment studies, children and media, and communication education.

For a typical yearly conference, the organization puts out a “call for papers” online 3-6 months before the conference, and scholars upload their original research to the website into the division that best fits their research topic. Each paper is then reviewed by peers in that field (typically two or three reviewers) who score the paper on dimensions such as quality of writing, importance of the topic, soundness of methodology, and impact of findings. Papers that gain high scores are then slated for presentation at the conference. Some presentations are done on posters whereas others are orally presented to small groups, typically using a visual aid such as PowerPoint. Presenting at an academic conference is a great way to get feedback from peers in your field before attempting to publish your work in an academic journal. And aside from presenting or attending research sessions, conferences offer an opportunity to connect and network with fellow scholars in your field. Conferences also typically have a “job fair” where representatives from various universities interview prospective new professors for academic positions.

There are several well-known and well-respected professional communication organizations in the United States. The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is one of the largest organizations, holding small regional conferences and one large conference each year. AEJMC has 18 divisions, 10 interest groups, and two commissions (or areas of broad concern that cut across divisional lines): Commission on the Status of Minorities and Commission on the Status of Women. Most divisions and interest groups have their own academic journal (i.e., Journal of Advertising Education , Electronic News , International Communication Research Journal , Mass Communication & Society , etc.,) and AEJMC publishes three scholarly journals: Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly , Journal & Mass Communication Educator , and Journalism & Communication Monographs . More information about AEJMC can be found at www.aejmc.org.

The National Communication Association (NCA) is another large organization, and its annual convention attracts roughly 5,000 attendees. NCA has 48 divisions and six caucuses (Asian/Pacific American; Black; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns; Disability; La Raza; and Women’s Caucus). In addition to journalism and mass communication, NCA features research divisions in activism and social justice, argumentation and forensics, ethnography, family communication, group communication, interpersonal communication, nonverbal communication, organizational communication, peace and conflict communication, public address, spiritual communication, and training and development. NCA publishes 11 academic journals: Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies , Communication Education , Communication Monographs , Communication Teacher , Critical Studies in Media Communication , First Amendment Studies , Journal of Applied Communication Research ,Journal of International and Intercultural Communication ,Quarterly Journal of Speech, The Review of Communication ,and Text and Performance Quarterly . More information about NCA can be found at www.natcom.org.

The largest international organization in our field is the International Communication Association (ICA). ICA boasts more than 4,500 members from 80 countries and is officially associated with the United Nations as a non-governmental NGO. They host an annual conference, switching between a US destination and an international destination each year. ICA has 23 divisions and nine interest groups, including divisions in Children, Adolescents and Media; Environmental Communication; Feminist Scholarship; Game Studies; Global Communication and Social Change; Philosophy, Theory and Critique; and Popular Communication in addition to divisions devoted to journalism, PR, and mass communication. ICA publishes six major peer reviewed journals: Journal of Communication, Communication Theory; Human Communication Research; Communication, Culture & Critique; Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication; and The Annals of the International Communication Association (formerly Communication Yearbook). There are also two affiliate journals: Communication & Society (a leading Chinese-language journal in journalism and communication) and Studies in Communication & Media (an open-access journal published by the German Communication Association). More information about ICA can be found at www.icahdq.org.

In addition to national and international professional organizations, there are several regional organizations that hold conferences. In our geographical area, we have the Georgia Communication Association (affiliated with NCA; www.gacomm.org), the Southern States Communication Association which publishes the Southern Communication Journal (also affiliated with NCA; www.ssca.net), and the Eastern Communication Association (ECA) which hosts conferences along the east coast of the US, and publishes Communication Research Reports, Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, and Communication Quarterly (www.ecasite.org). There are also regional meetings of the larger organizations, such as the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium, which is held at a different university in the Southeast each March.

There are also professional organizations associated with specific fields within the communication discipline. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA; http://prsa.org) is the largest communication-based professional organization in the US, boasting more than 30,000 members, and has a mission to “make communications professionals smarter, better prepared and more connected through all stages of their career.” They also support the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA; http://prssa.prsa.org) with university chapters across the US. Kennesaw State’s School of Communication & Media has a PRSSA chapter, so if you’re a PR-Interest student you should check it out: http://www.ksuprssa.org.

Journalists have a professional organization as well: The Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ; www.spj.org). SPJ is the most broad-based journalism organization in the US, dedicated to “encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior.” SPJ was founded in 1909 and currently has roughly 7,500 members. The state of Georgia has an SPJ chapter (https://spjgeorgia.com/) and Kennesaw State has a very active student chapter. You can check them out via their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/KennesawStateSpj.Interested in journalism and mass communication history? The American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA; https:// ajha.wildapricot.org/) holds a national conference and a Southeast symposium every year and publishes the academic journal American Journalism.

Are you a media production enthusiast? The Broadcast Education Association (BEA; www.beaweb.org) is a great resource. BEA is an international academic media professional organization focused on excellence in media production and career advancement for educators, students, and professionals in the industry. The organization holds a massive annual convention in Las Vegas in April, with over 250 sessions on teaching media courses, collaborative networking events, hands-on technology workshops, and research and creative scholarship, in addition to the Festival of Media Arts. The BEA convention is co-located with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, where attendees can learn about (and try!) all of the new media production technology. BEA also publishes the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Journal of Radio & Audio Media, Journal of Media Education, and the Electronic Media Research book series.

For scholars interested in film and media studies, The Society for Cinema & Media Studies (SCMS; https://www.cmstudies.org/) is dedicated to the scholarly study of film, television, video, and new media. They hold an annual conference where students and teachers of film and media studies present research and attend networking events. SCMS also publishes the peer-reviewed academic publication Cinema Journal, focusing on digital media, sound studies, visual culture, video game studies, fan studies, and avant-garde/experimental film and media practices.

Or perhaps you’re interested in health communication? The American Public Health Association has a Health Communication working group (https://www.apha.org/apha-communities/ member-sections/public-health-education-and-health-promotion/who-we-are/hcwg) and the National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) partners with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to host a national conference on health communication, media, and marketing (https://www.cdc.gov/nchcmm/index.html).

Are you an organizational and professional communication scholar? Try the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM; www.shrm.org). They host an annual conference with nearly 200 sessions in six categories: business & HR strategy, HR compliance, global HR, professional development, talent management, and total rewards. They also host conferences on diversity & inclusion, employment law & legislation, leadership development, and recruitment & talent management. There is a local Atlanta chapter here: https://www.shrmatlanta.org/ default.aspx. Another great resource is the Association for Talent Development (formerly “training & development) or ATD (www.td.org). They host conferences in the US and abroad as well as training workshops called “LearnNow” on topics such as game design for instruction, employee engagement, and getting started with augmented reality and virtual reality.

References

Dewey, J. (1927). The public and its problems. New York: Holt.

Lippmann, W. (1922). Public opinion . New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.

"In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand. ”

-Neil Armstrong