Areas of Emphasis

Areas of Emphasis

Faculty members in Communication Studies teach and research in four main areas:  Public Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Organizational Communication, and Intercultural Communication.  They also focus on one increasingly important context in which communication in the four areas occurs:  New Communication Technology.

Public Communication—Communication Studies faculty study the way that people use communication in public life, in politics, social movements, and all aspects of modern culture.  Within the area of public communication, faculty members focus on a number of sub-areas:

• Rhetorical and Communication Theory—the study of theories describing, explaining and evaluating how humans communicate in public settings.
• Rhetorical Criticism—the study of methods for analyzing and evaluating significant works of rhetoric.
• Public Address—the study of important works of public communication, especially speeches that influenced the development of the United States. 
• Contemporary rhetoric—the study of social and cultural movements in the United Sates and the world.
• Political communication—the study of contemporary political rhetoric.  In this area, faculty use both humanistic (traditional rhetorical approaches) and social science to analyze political communication. 
• Argumentation—the study of how rational forms of communication work (and fail to work).
• Rhetorical education and leadership—the study of how effective communication is an essential tool for leaders who want to produce social change.

Interpersonal Communication—Faculty members in interpersonal study the way communication functions in interpersonal and small group settings.  Within this area, faculty members focus on a number of sub-areas:

• Relational communication—the way that communication functions in relationships.
• Family communication—the study of communication in familial and other relationships.
• Small group communication—the study of how communication functions in teams and groups.
• Social scientific theories—the study of theories drawn from the social sciences and how they explain communication in interpersonal and other contexts.
• Social science methods—the study of how social science research methods can illuminate communication in interpersonal and other contexts. 

Organizational Communication—Faculty members in organizational communication study the way that communication functions in business, government, churches and other organizational contexts.  Within this area, faculty members focus on a number of sub-areas

• Macro-organizational communication—the study of the impact of communication between organizations and between an organization and the larger society.
• Micro-organizational communication—the study of the impact of communication within organizations.
• Organizational rhetoric—the study of the way that organizations use rhetoric to send messages to stakeholders within the organization and to the larger society.

Intercultural Communication—Faculty members in intercultural communication study the way that communication varies because of culture.  Within this area, faculty members focus on a number of sub-areas

• Culture and communication—the study of how communication practices differ because of culture both within the United States and also between the United States and the rest of the world.  Faculty members focus in particular on communication in the United States and Asia.
• Intergroup communication—the study of how communication practices vary among different groups.
• Aging and communication—the study of how communication practices change as people age. 

New Communication Technology—Communication Studies does not treat new communication technology (the internet and associated technologies) as an area of study, but as a context in which communication occurs in the other four areas of study.  Thus, much public, interpersonal, organizational, and intercultural communication occurs through new communication technology and is influenced by the development of that new technology.  The department has been a leader in the study of New Communication Technology.