rough draft project 3

Laura Tatone
The Field and Study of Communication

The study of communication is an important field of study for many reasons. Communication is used in everyday interactions whether it be face-to -face or through technology. There are different types of communication styles and contexts that effect how a message from one person is sent and interoperated by another person or group of people. It is important to study these types of communication so that we as humans can both become better at communicating thoughts and ideas, but also with understanding how different types of communication can have different effects to how a person interoperates the message being sent.
  Some arguments for/against why communication is an important area of study. (no content from prof yet but it is in the process of being completed, this would be were the interview segments will be put and addressed.)
In a journal article from Mark Hickson and Eduardo Neiva titled Toward A Taxonomy Of  Universals In The Biology Of Communication. The inquiry of how the nature of communication between humans is investigated in this article. Communication as a study is difficult to pin down with one common placed description. The same goes for how communication is thought to have been constructed.  Hickson wrote that “The tendency to avoid the question of the universals as the starting point in communication studies stems from the unwarranted suspicion that the replies to such an inquiry are inevitably empty, futile, or obvious. The only generalization concerning communicating humans would be that there is no possible generalization.” There can be a number of different factors as to how we are able to communicate but for Hickson and Neiva they propose that we are able to communicate due to a biological nature of needs. Some ideas that support this line of thinking is that for evolution to happen, the individual organism is important to play multiple parts, such as reproduction, eating other organisms, and being eaten by other organisms. The organism plays either the role of cooperation or competition and with these parts they must interact differently to survive based on deceptive possibilities and honest messages.
In another article from Kelly McMillan And Simon Albrecht Titled Measuring Social Exchange Constructs in Organizations the idea being expressed is that communication climates and change communication are important areas in helping employees cope with changes in an organization. They believe that communication is important to keep workers involved in there organizations and that communication will help keep workers committed to the company through times of change. There are many different ways to help people cope with change and one of the ideas that the article presents is Social exchange theory which “contends that the more frequently, sincerely, and intensely expressions of support are perceived by employees, the more likely they will be to reciprocate with pro-social attitudes and behaviors.”  This is a way that communication is important and without the study of communications studies like this would not be held and this type of interaction between organization and employee would be less understood.
Communication as a substantial area of study, both in how it was created and how it is used in a day to day context. For these articles they present the reader with arguments to how communication is valuable and they bring up subject matter that relates to their argument and claims. The field of communication is important for us to study to understand how we behave and what kind of interactions influence the way we think and feel.