Analysing Communication

ANALYSING COMMUNICATION is an introductory textbook to communication studies. 

This book introduces various approaches to communication analysis and shows how different theoretical and ontological perspectives on communication and communication processes change how we can analyse communication. 

This second edition is radically different from the first book. The discussion and presentation of the seven communication traditions are extended and each of the chapters on the seven traditions now contains an analysis of the same case in order to highlight what the change in perspective does to the analyses thereby showcasing the book’s claim that different theoretical perspectives give different analyses.

The seven traditions, originally identified by Robert T. Craig are:

• The cybernetic tradition
• The sociopsychological tradition
• The rhetorical tradition
• The semiotic tradition
• The sociocultural tradition
• The phenomenological tradition
• The critical tradition

Each of the traditions gives a specific and unique insight into how we can see and discuss communication from different theoretical, epistemological and ontological perspectives.

In addition, chapter 11 introduces and discusses four approaches to communication theory and analysis that deserve a special mention, because of their novel understandings of communication.

KARSTEN PEDERSEN is MA & PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University. Dr Pedersen teaches communication at Roskilde University and specialises in communication theory and public communication.