THE ROLE OF RESEARCH IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMMUNICATION DISCIPLINE

 
The use of a scientific justification for the establishment of speech as a separate department had important implications for the development of communication research.

v Speech scientists emulated more established human sciences, such as psychology and sociology, which had emulated such physical sciences as biology and physics.

v Speech scientists adopted their research methodologies, as well as many interdisciplinary concepts and perspectives for studying communication phenomena, from physical and other human sciences.

v Communication inquiry began to broaden beyond its traditional focus on presentational communication

v The human scientific perspective of speech expanded from focusing on the areas of public speaking and rhetoric to exploring the broader study of communication in all walks of life.
 

The introduction of radio, television, and film as important communication media in the 1900s expanded the boundaries of journalism study beyond the professional training of print journalists to the examination of the social impact of media. As mass communication theories were developed and as research explored the production, use, and influence of the mass media, the justification for journalism as a unique discipline changed from journalism as professional training to journalism as an applied human science devoted to the pragmatic analysis of the role of the media in society.

 

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