Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm

Abstract

In response to the proposition that communication lacks disciplinary sta-tus because of deficient core knowledge, I propose that we turn an osten-sible weakness into a strength. We should identify our mission as bring-ing together insights and theories that would otherwise remain scattered in other disciplines. Because of the lack of interchange among the disci-plines, hypotheses thoroughly discredited in one field may receive wide acceptance in another. Potential research paradigms remain fractured, with pieces here and there but no comprehensive statement to guide re-search. By bringing ideas together in one location, communication can aspire to become a master discipline that synthesizes related theories and concepts and exposes them to the most rigorous, comprehensive state-ment and exploration. Reaching this goal would require a more self-con-scious determination by communication scholars to plumb other fields and feed back their studies to outside researchers. At the same time, such an enterprise would enhance the theoretical rigor of communication

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