Communication Theory by Robert T. Craig: discursive practices and interaction trends in subject control

Abstract

In 1999, American researcher Robert T. Craig wrote his conceptual article Communication Theory as a Field,” which expanded the context of the discussion of “ disciplinary identity in the field of communication. In textbooks on communication theory at that time there was practically no agreement on what constituted her discussion field or what theories should be included in textbooks. This article, representing the field of communication, became the basis for four different textbooks on the theory of communication. Craig offers his vision of the theory of communication, which takes a huge step towards combining this rather heterogeneous field and solving its main problems. Towards this unifying vision, Craig focused on the theory of communication as a practical discipline and showed how different traditions of the theory of communication can be involved in a dialogue about the practice of communication and management. In this discourse, various scholars (S. Dietz, T. Taylor, P. Lazarsfeld, K. Arnold, N. Luhmann) enter into a dialogue on the practical refractions of communication theories. Following Craig, the author considers seven different traditions of the theory of communication in general terms and in more detail dwells on the sociopsychological and sociocultural approaches as the most promising in terms of management impact on the subject.