Artikel

Communicatiewetenschap of communicatiewetenschappen: een twistvraag

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Abstract

The study of social communication: necessity of a multidisciplinary approach - In this article the author discusses the question about whether “social communication” or “mass communication” must be seen as an integrated part of social psychology, as the object of an autonomous discipline, the so-called „science of communication”, or must be studied using a multidisciplinary approach. The author prefers the last solution. Indeed, in the great tradition of K. Lewin and C. I. Hovland, social communication is seen as a more specialized form of human communication. As a consequence of the very fast development of the mass media, social psychologists concentrated their efforts on interpersonal communication, leaving the study of mass communication to other scientists. The author doesn’t believe in the possibility of an autonomous “science of communication”. Such a discipline should have no specific object, no research method, no scientific tradition. Social communication could be studied most effectively and most fruitfully by a multidisciplinary approach. While psychology, economics, political science, linguistics, etc. studies the psychological, economic, political, linguistic, etc. aspects of the communication message, sociology must try to give answer to the questions about the social functions of the communication system, in the tradition of the early empirical studies of the press by W. I. Thomas and F. Znaniecki, R. E. Park, E. W. Burgess and R. D. Me. Kenzie, etc.

How to Cite:

Van Parys, G., (1973) “Communicatiewetenschap of communicatiewetenschappen: een twistvraag”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 18(2), 123–136. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95940