Human Inquiry and Scientific Inquiry About Communication

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Human Inquiry and Scientific Inquiry About
Communication
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How do you know?
Most of what you know is based on agreement.
We can also know things from direct experience or
observation.
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Ordinary Human Inquiry About Communication

• People want to both understand and predict their
  communication with others
• Our understanding is often based on sources of
  second-hand knowledge.
• Tradition
• Authority

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Errors in Ordinary Inquiry

• Inaccurate Observations
• Overgeneralization
• Selective Observation
• Illogical Reasoning

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Scientific inquiry guards against the errors of
ordinary inquiry through careful and deliberate
efforts.
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Views of Reality

• The Premodern View
• The Modern View
• The Postmodern View

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The Characteristics of Scientific Inquiry about
Communication

• Theory, data collection, and data analysis are at
  the heart of the scientific enterprise.
• Scientific inquiry is an empirical enterprise.
• Scientific inquiry examines social regularities.
• Scientific inquiry examines aggregates, not
  individuals.

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Communication Studies is a field of research on
the production and uses of symbols (both
linguistic and non-verbal, whether face to face
or mediated) in concrete social and cultural
contexts to enable the dynamics of systems,
society, and culture (Baxter Babbie, 2004, p.
11)
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Communication as the primary phenomenon of study

• Communication researchers study the processes of
  message production, transmission, and
  meaning-making.
• Communication researchers study the content and
  form of communicative messages.
• Communication researchers study the function and
  effects of messages.

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Disseminating Communication Research

• Research for public consumption.
• Research for private consumption (Proprietary
  research).