• What is communication?
• Not everything is communication, so be clear about what counts and what doesn’t.
• What is the communication studies discipline?
• How is it different from closely related fields, like psychology or sociology? Think
about a topic area for research and how a communication researcher would
approach it vs. a psych researcher, etc.
• What are focal areas in communication studies – which ones are
represented in our department and which ones exist but are not
represented in our department?
• How would you define these different focal areas? Again, what counts and what
doesn’t?
• Which faculty members identify with which focal areas?
• What are seminal theories of communication? Describe them. What are
more contemporary or more newly developed theories in communication?
• What are contexts or situations that are popularly researched by
communication researchers?
• What is the state of researching communication? Where is the field
headed?
