Argues that, because of its heavy technological emphasis, telecommunications will tend toward instrumental, applied forms of research. Notes alternative research traditions that see telecommunications as part of the social history of communications technology. Discusses implications for the contemporary study of telecommunications. (SR)

Defines the "worship of p" as the current phenomenon of attaching major significance to statistical analysis, and contends that such statistical analysis and precision are useful only when viewed as secondary tools in scientific research. (MH)

Argues that communication research needs to move toward better integration of observations on the microlevel with systemic generalizations about macrolevel phenomena, and reorient research away from the media behavior and responses of individuals and toward the cumulative consequences of media behavior over time. (SR)

Claims that the field of communication is moving beyond theorizing that treats communication as a process, to what might be called "multiple-process theory." Examines views of message-processing modes and effects, enlarges the scope of inquiry by considering a multiplicity of levels of analysis, and discusses a philosophical orientation compatible…

Discuses three developmental stages of the information society: the electrification of communication, beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century; converging technologies and awareness of information, beginning in the late middle twentieth century; and, beginning in the 1990s, the harmonization of information systems with each other.…

Advocates that communication scholars explore more deeply the work of Emile Durkheim. Explores Durkheim and communication studies, and Durkheimian contributions to communication theory, viewing every corner of social life as communicatively founded. (SR)

Proposes an approach to defining units of analysis for Internet communication research. Defines the term "Internet computer-mediated communication." Uses this definition as the basis for developing a set of definitions (media space, media class, media object, and media instance) as units of analysis. Illustrates these units with some examples. (SR)

Comments on the attempt to construct a coherent intellectual viewpoint to span the disparate projects of interpersonal and mass communication research. Considers how the discipline of communication can construct functional representations of itself despite diversity. (SR)

Presents a dialog between the two editors of this issue, discussing and debating why communication researchers should study the Internet, and how the topic can be conceptually constrained. (SR)

Considers how the troubles affecting the field of communication are linked to the decline of modernism. Argues that the future of the field lies in exploring both microscopic and macroscopic social changes in a postmodern world. Proposes an agenda for this research. (SR)

Identifies five overarching values central to disciplinary disputes in communication, and how their relative importance changes depending on prevailing social, economic, and intellectual conditions. Explores discipline-level values in the 1980s, and how value structures are likely to shift in the 1990s. Proposes a value hierarchy for the future.…

Discusses five key assumptions of critical scholarship on development communication: development communication must liberate; women's perspective as a basis for development communication; context defines women's perspective; context is understood in dialogue; and dialog must engage many levels and types of power. (SR)

Introduces "virtual reality" (computer-enhanced environments in which the user feels present), and considers its possible implications for communication research and researchers. (SR)

Argues that scholars in communication studies, rather than engaging questions about "the field" or "the divide," should instead ask questions about who they are, and who they become, when they engage in certain kinds of communication inquiry--ontological questions about epistemological consequences. (SR)