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Communication studies is an academic field that deals with processes of human communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols to create meaning. The discipline encompasses a range of topics, from face-to-face conversation to mass media outlets such as television broadcasting. Communication studies also examines how messages are interpreted through the political, cultural, economic, and social dimensions of their contexts.

Other names[link]

Communication is institutionalized under many different names at different universities, including "communication", "communication studies", "speech communication", "rhetorical studies", "communications science", "media studies", "communication arts", "mass communication", "media ecology," and "communication and media science."

Scope[link]

Communication studies integrates aspects of both social sciences and the humanities. As a social science, the discipline often overlaps with sociology, psychology, anthropology, biology, political science, economics, and public policy, among others. From a humanities perspective, communication is concerned with rhetoric and persuasion (traditional graduate programs in communication studies trace their history to the rhetoricians of Ancient Greece). The field applies to outside disciplines as well, including engineering, architecture, mathematics, and information science.

In the United States, the National Communication Association (NCA) recognizes nine distinct but often overlapping sub-disciplines within the broader communication discipline: technology, critical-cultural, health, intercultural, interpersonal-small group, mass communication, organizational, political, and rhetorical. Students take courses in these subject areas. Other programs and courses often integrated in communication programs include journalism, film criticism, theatre, public relations, political science (e.g., political campaign strategies, public speaking, effects of media on elections), as well as radio, television and film production. More recently, computer-mediated communication and the implications of new media for communication have drawn new research and courses.

Flexibility[link]

Part of what makes communication a popular major is its great reputation for being flexible.^[1] Graduates of formal communication programs take many different career paths, including university professors, marketing researchers, media editors and designers, journalists, actors, human resources managers, corporate trainers, public relations practitioners, and media managers and consultants in a variety of fields.

History[link]

Professional associations[link]

• National Communication Association (NCA): The main national professional organization covering many of the areas of communication studies in the U.S.
• International Communication Association is the main international association for communication studies, which combines an older focus on quantitatively based social science studies with newer critical and cultural studies of communicative phenomena.
• Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
• Association for Business Communication (ABC)
• International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
• Society for Technical Communication (STC)
• Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
• European Communication Research and Education Association / ECREA is the main European association for communication studies.
• European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing (EATAW) is the main European association for writing studies.
• Association for Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW)
• International Association for Media and Communications Research (IAMCR) is a large international association for communication studies.
• IEEE Professional Communication Society

Bibliography[link]

• Carey, James. 1988 Communication as Culture.
• Cohen, Herman. 1994. The History of Speech Communication: The Emergence of a Discipline, 1914-1945. Annandale, VA: Speech Communication Association.
• Gehrke, Pat J. 2009. The Ethics and Politics of Speech: Communication and Rhetoric in the Twentieth Century. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
• Packer, J. & Robertson, C, eds. 2006. Thinking with James Carey: Essays on Communications, Transportation, History.
• Peters, John Durham and Peter Simonson, eds. 2004. Mass Communication and American Social Thought: Key Texts 1919-1968.
• Wahl-Jorgensen, Karin 2004, 'How Not to Found a Field: New Evidence on the Origins of Mass Communication Research', Journal of Communication, September 2004.

See also[link]

• Outline of communication (Communication topics)
• Communication sciences
• Critical theory
• Linguistics
• Philosophy of language
• Rhetorics
• Semiotics
• Text and conversation theory

References[link]

External links[link]

• Communication Studies An educational resource.

Geert Lovink
Geert Lovink in 2010
Born	1959 (age 52–53)
Nationality	Dutch
Alma mater	University of Amsterdam, University of Melbourne, University of Queensland
Occupation	Professor
Employer	University of Amsterdam, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, European Graduate School
Website
http://networkcultures.org/ http://laudanum.net/geert/

Geert Lovink (born 1959, Amsterdam) is a Research Professor of Interactive Media at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA), a Professor of Media Theory at the European Graduate School, and an Associate Professor of New Media at the University of Amsterdam (UvA).^[1] Lovink earned his master's degree in political science at the University of Amsterdam, holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne and has been a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Queensland.^[2]

Lovink is the founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, whose goals are to explore, document and feed the potential for socio-economical change of the new media field through events, publications and open dialogue.^[3] As theorist, activist and net critic, Lovink has made an effort in helping to shape the development of the web.

Activities[link]

Since the early eighties, Lovink has been involved in a range of different projects and initiatives in the field of new media.

• 1982 Member of Adilkno
• 1989–94 Editor for the media art magazine Mediamatic
• 1993 Co-founder of the support campaign for independent media in South-East Europe Press Now
• 1994 Co-founder of the Amsterdam-based free community network Digital City (DDS)
• 1995 Co-founder (together with Pit Schultz) of the international nettime circle
• 1996–99 Public researcher at the Society for Old and New Media, De Waag
• 1996 Coordinating projects and teaching once a year at the IMI mediaschool in Osaka/Japan
• 2000 organizer of the Tulipomania Dotcom conference
• 2000–08 Consultant/editor to the exchange program of Waag Society and Sarai New Media Centre (Delhi)
• 2001 Co-founder of FibreCulture, a forum for Australian Internet research and culture
• 2002 Co-organizer of Dark Markets, on new media and democracy in times of crisis in Vienna
• 2003 Co-organizer of Uncertain States of Reportage in Delhi
• 2004 Co-organizer (together with Trebor Scholz) of the conference on the art of (online) collaboration Free Cooperation at SUNY Buffalo

On 31 May 2010 Geert Lovink took part in Quit Facebook Day and deleted his Facebook account.^[4]

Theories[link]

Geert Lovink was one of the key theorists behind the concept of tactical media – the use of media technologies as a tool to distribute the ideas that are opposed to an issue against different levels of government. As an Internet activist, he describes tactical media as a "deliberately slippery term, a tool for creating 'temporary consensus zones' based on unexpected alliances. A temporary alliance of hackers, artists, critics, journalists and activists."^[5] In essence, he believes that these new resources of which audiences could become participants in actions against higher powers became an area in which many different types of people could unite. Lovink also was a founder of such projects as "nettime", "organised networks", "virtual media" and more.

Projects[link]

These are some of the projects Lovink is or has been involved with:

• Critical Point of View (CPoV): Wikipedia Research Initiative
• Urban Screens: The City as Interface
• Society of the Query: stop searching, start questioning, on the dominant role of search engines in our culture
• Video Vortex: on independent production and distribution of online video content
• New Network Theory: on smart mobs
• MyCreativity: on creative industries
• The Art and Politics of Netporn
• Incommunicado: on information technology for development
• A Decade of Webdesign

Bibliography[link]

• Lovink, Geert. Dynamics of Critical Internet Culture (1994-2001), PhD thesis, English Department, The University of Melbourne, 2002.
• Lovink, Geert. Dark Fiber: Tracking Critical Internet Culture, Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN 0-262-12249-9
• Lovink, Geert. Uncanny Networks, Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press, 2002.
• Lovink, Geert. My First Recession, Rotterdam: NAi/V2_Publishing, 2003.
• Lovink, Geert. The Principle of Notworking, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2005.
• Lovink, Geert. "New Media, Art and Science: Explorations Beyond the Official Discourse", in Scott McQuire and Nikos Papastergiadis (eds), Empires, Ruins + Networks: The Transcultural Agenda in Art, Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press, 2005.
• Lovink, Geert. Tactical Media, the Second Decade, Brazilian Submidialogia, 2005.
• Lovink, Geert and Rossiter, Ned. "Dawn of the organized networks", Fibreculture Journal 5 2005.
• Lovink, Geert. Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, London and New York: Routledge, 2007.
• Lovink, Geert. Networks Without a Cause: A Critique of Social Media, Cambridge and Malden: Polity, 2011.

References[link]

1. ^ Geert Lovink Faculty Profile at European Graduate School. Biography, bibliography, photos and video lectures.
2. ^ http://laudanum.net/geert/biography.shtml
3. ^ http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/about/the-institute/
4. ^ Join the Facebook Exodus on May 31!, blogpost, 27 May 2010.
5. ^ Meikle, Grahama (2004) "Networks of Influence: Internet Activism in Australia and Beyond" in Gerard Goggin (ed.) Virtual Nation: the Internet in Australia, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney pp 73-87

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