According to the philosophers Kuhn and Lakatos, the two ways science has developed for defining a scientific discipline are by paradigms (identifying what is important in theory and technique to the practitioner of the science) and by research programs, specified in this dissertation as areas of study. The purpose of this dissertation has been to examine the areas of study and the body of theory and technique in Communication that has been studied, practiced, and published in the International Communication Association Yearbooks (CY's) between the years 1977 and 1986. The ten years under study were chosen because the first ten years of the CY's followed a format that allowed for consistency in presentation, and the research was conducted by known scholars in the field. Since 1987, the volumes have addressed special issues and were therefore not suited to this study. / The method used to examine this data was content analysis. Content analysis objectively and systematically analyzes words and phrases and quantifies them under categories by counting frequencies. In this study, the method was strictly descriptive. This method of research lent itself well to identifying specific characteristics in a volume of printed material as massive as the one studied in this dissertation. Finding revealed the importance of such research programs as Health Communication, Information Systems, Instructional Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural and Development Communication, Organizational Communication, and Philosophy of Communication. A significant degree of adherence to a common body of theory and methods is evident. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2385. / Major Professor: Thomas King. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76917 |
| Contributors | Dick, Joan E., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 155 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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