Different approaches to the studying of communication process

Abstract

The history of communication studies includes two primary influences: the rhetorical and the behaviorist traditions. The roots of the rhetorical tradition began with the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers. However, with the invention of the printing press during the Renaissance, the written word came to dominate. Thus, rhetoric, or the art of oral persuasion, slowly declined in importance. The field of communication became a discipline and was divided into two research approaches—behaviorism and humanism. Behaviorism built on the work of elocution scholars and followed the model of the social sciences, such as psychology and sociology. Humanism built on the rhetorical tradition. Both emphasize the importance of individual forces. As the field evolved, two more approaches that emphasize societal forces emerged, leading to the four current approaches: social science (behaviorism), interpretive (humanism), critical, and postmodern.