Communication As A Method:Reflection On Craig's Communication Theory

As a newly-developing social discipline,communication discipline has been affected by many other social disciplines,causing a dilemma in the academic area of communication.Since 1940 s,the communication discipline has thrived in just a few decades,and the problem stands out.Theorical discourses in communication domain could not reach a consensus,and the academic legitimacy of communication discipline is questioned by other scholars.Under such circumstances,many scholars are trying to legitimize communication discipline,dispersing the haze over the communication field.In May 1988,the board of International communication association decided to start a publication named Communication Theory in order to integrate trivial communication theories in the field and reproduce original communication theories.Robert·T·Craig,one of founders of Communication Theory shoulders the responsibility.As a result,he came up with the idea that communication can be considered as a practical discipline,which gets rid of the impacts of optimists and empiricists in massive but frivolous theory field.From the perspective of practice and discourses,he made a quite reasonable explanation on the side of Pluralist positivism,which upgrades the research angle of communication study,composing of communication field,and the reproducing process of communication theories.Firstly,the thesis intends to comprehend Craig's idea in his logic,for the purpose of finding the background and origin of his theory.Then the specific communication theory of Craig would be unfolded in the Chapter three and Chapter four,which consists of Craig's communication theory,practical theory and his contribution to communication discipline.The thesis proposed that his contribution to communication can be categorized into three folds,which are to find consensus in the field,to detect a communicational perspective,and to reproduce communication theories.At last,the thesis would reflect on his general ideas combining the 1980s' turning point in social discipline and draw a conclusion that Craig's theory is competitive among other solutions and of great potential to lead communication discipline out of confusion.