This volume provides a graduate-level introduction to communication science, including theory and scholarship for masters and PhD students as well as practicing scholars. The work defines communication, reviews its history, and provides a broad look at how communication research is conducted. It also includes chapters reviewing the most frequently addressed topics in communication science. This book presents an overview of theory in general and of communication theory in particular, while offering a broad look at topics in communication that promote understanding of the key issues in communication science for students and scholars new to communication research. The book takes a predominantly "communication science" approach but also situates this approach in the broader field of communication, and addresses how communication science is related to and different from such approaches as critical and cultural studies and rhetoric. As an overview of communication science that will serve as a reference work for scholars as well as a text for the introduction to communication graduate studies course, this volume is an essential resource for understanding and conducting scholarship in the communication discipline.

Cet ouvrage de synthèse sur les fondements théoriques et épistémologiques de la science de l’information répond à trois questions : – existe-t-il une science de l’information à part entière ? – comment se définit l’information, objet de cette science ? – y a-t-il une spécificité française de la science de l’information ? Ce livre compare les chemins parcourus par la science de l’information en France et dans le reste du monde. Il contextualise cette évolution à l’aune d’une diversité d’inscriptions disciplinaires. L’enjeu de la science de l’information est de concilier l’approche réaliste de la connaissance, l’approche individualiste des sciences cognitives et l’approche collectiviste où les domaines sont façonnés et les comportements sont modulés par les environnements, les cultures et les construits sociaux partagés. Cette étude sera utile à tous les chercheurs, étudiants et professionnels désirant approfondir leurs connaissances sur les fondements théoriques de la science de l’information.

Written as an introduction for beginning students, this book offers a thorough, yet lively, overview of human communication in all its aspects. Accessibly written and assuming no prior knowledge of the discipline Communication: An Introduction: offers a thorough, yet lively, examination of all aspects of human communication, including: a summary of its nature, form and function; a detailed analysis of all the levels of communication; a description and overview of the different traditions of communication studies; and a consideration of the future of communication - as a phenomenon and as a field of research.

'The book provides a concise, informative, comprehensive, and current overview of key issues in the field of science communication, the background of science communication, its theoretical bases, and its links to science communication practice. Especially the link between theory / research and practice is very well developed in the book and in the individual chapters. I think that is valuable for both readers new to the field of science communication, but also for those who identify with only one of these sides … it is indeed a comprehensive and concise overview, convincing in its aim to link theory, research, and practice and I will definitely use it for my lectures on science communication.'JCOM - Journal of Science CommunicationA concise, coherent and easily readable textbook about the field of science communication, connecting the practice of science communicators with theory. In the book, recent trends and shifts in the field resonate, such as the transition from telling about science to interacting with the public and the importance of science communication in health and environmental communication. The chapters have been written by experts in their disciplines, coming from philosophy of science and communication studies to health communication and science journalism. Cases from around the world illustrate science communication in practice. The book provides a broad, up-to-date and coherent introduction to science communication for both, students of science communication and related fields, as well as professionals.Related Link(s)