Communication Matters

Chapter 9

Beyond transmission, modes, and media

Jennifer Daryl Slack

 

This is not the first time communication has had to rethink itself to remain vital. Faced with the inability to substantiate media effects, Bernard Berelson, one of the “founding fathers” of communication, observed in 1959 that the field was “withering away” (Berelson, 1959, p. 1) and all the interesting people had either died or left the field for other disciplines. His epitaph includes an odd feature: after proclaiming that the field has “worn out” after 25 years of “great ideas” (p. 6), he offers “seven current lines of which some may develop into the major focuses of the years ahead” (p. 5).¹ Berelson’s lament reveals a longing for a time when big questions and great ...