FOUNDATIONS -- Communication Theory and Scholarship -- Defining Communication -- The Academic Study of Communication -- The Process of Inquiry in Communication -- A Basic Model of Inquiry -- Types of Scholarship -- How Scholars Work -- Notes -- The Idea of Theory -- Dimensions of Theory -- Philosophical Assumptions -- Concepts -- Explanations -- Principles -- Nomothetic Theory -- Philosophical Assumptions -- Concepts -- Explanations -- Practical Theory -- Philosophical Assumptions -- Concepts -- Explanations -- Principles -- Evaluating Communication Theory -- Theoretical Scope -- Appropriateness -- Heuristic Value -- Validity -- Parsimony -- Openness -- So What Makes a Good Theory After All? -- Looking Forward -- Notes -- Traditions of Communication Theory -- Framing Communication Theory -- The Semiotic Tradition.

Key Ideas of the Semiotic Tradition -- Variations in the Semiotic Tradition -- The Phenomenological Tradition -- Key Ideas of the Phenomenological Tradition -- Variations in the Phenomenological Tradition -- The Cybernetic Tradition -- Key Ideas of the Cybernetic Tradition -- Variations in the Cybernetic Tradition -- The Sociopsychological Tradition -- Key Ideas of the Sociopsychological Tradition -- Variations in the Sociopsychological Tradition -- The Sociocultural Tradition -- Key Ideas of the Sociocultural Tradition -- Variations in the Sociocultural Tradition -- The Critical Tradition -- Key Ideas of the Critical Tradition -- Variations in the Critical Tradition -- The Rhetorical Tradition -- Key Ideas of the Rhetorical Tradition -- Variations in the Rhetorical Tradition -- Expanding Contexts for Communication -- Notes -- THEORIES -- The Communicator -- The Sociopsychological Tradition -- Trait Theory -- Cognition and Information Processing.

The Cybernetic Tradition -- Information-Integration Theory -- Theory of Cognitive Dissonance -- Problematic-Integration Theory -- The Sociocultural Tradition -- Symbolic Interaction and Self as a Social Object -- The Presentational Self -- The Communication Theory of Identity -- Identity Negotiation Theory -- The Rhetorical Tradition -- Richard Weaver's Theory of Truth and Rhetoric -- Ernesto Grassi's Italian Humanism -- The Critical Tradition -- Standpoint Theory -- Identity as Constructed and Performed -- Queer Theory -- Applications & Implications -- Notes -- The Message -- The Semiotic Tradition -- Semiotics of Language -- Theories of Nonverbal Coding -- The Phenomenological Tradition -- Paul Ricoeur's Theory of Distanciation -- Stanley Fish's Reader-Response Theory -- Hans-Georg Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics -- The Rhetorical Tradition -- Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca's New Rhetoric -- Toulmin's Practical Argumentation.

Bitzer's Rhetorical Situation -- Burke's Theory of Identification -- Fisher's Narrative Paradigm -- The Sociocultural Tradition -- Speech Act Theory -- Language and Gender -- The Sociopsychological Tradition -- Action-Assembly Theory -- Strategy-Choice Models -- Message-Design Models -- Applications & Implications -- Notes -- The Conversation -- The Sociopsychological Tradition -- Managing Uncertainty and Anxiety -- Accommodation and Adaptation -- The Sociocultural Tradition -- Symbolic Interactionism -- Conversation Analysis -- Face-Negotiation Theory -- The Rhetorical Tradition -- Symbolic Convergence Theory -- Invitational Rhetoric -- The Cybernetic Tradition -- The Coordinated Management of Meaning -- The Critical Tradition -- Language-Centered Perspective on Culture -- Co-cultural Theory -- Applications & Implications -- Notes -- The Relationship -- The Cybernetic Tradition -- Relational Patterns of Interaction.

The Sociopsychological Tradition -- Relational Schemas in the Family -- Social Penetration Theory -- The Rhetorical Tradition -- Bakhtin's Theory of Dialogics -- Aimee Carrillo Rowe's Theory of Coalition and Alliance Building -- The Sociocultural Tradition -- Identity Management Theory -- Relational Dialectics Theory -- Communication Privacy Management -- The Phenomenological Tradition -- Carl Rogers -- Martin Buber -- Applications & Implications -- Notes -- The Group -- The Sociopsychological Tradition -- Interaction-Process Analysis -- The Cybernetic Tradition -- Bona Fide Group Theory -- The Input-Process-Output Model -- The Sociocultural Tradition -- Structuration Theory -- Functional Theory -- Groupthink Theory -- The Critical Tradition -- Feminist Critique of Small Group Theory -- Applications & Implications -- Notes -- The Organization -- The Sociopsychological Tradition -- Managerialism and Weber's Theory of Bureaucracy.

The Cybernetic Tradition -- The Process of Organizing -- Actor-Network Theory, Co-orientation, and the Montreal School -- Network Theory -- The Rhetorical Tradition -- Organizational Control Theory -- The Sociocultural Tradition -- Structuration Theory -- Organizational Culture -- The Critical Tradition -- Discourse of Suspicion -- Corporate Colonization Theory -- Gender and Race in Organizational Communication -- Applications & Implications -- Notes -- The Media -- The Semiotic Tradition -- Jean Baudrillard and the Semiotics of Media -- The Sociocultural Tradition -- Medium Theory -- Agenda Setting and Framing -- Social Action Media Studies -- The Sociopsychological Tradition -- The Effects Tradition -- Cultivation Theory -- Uses, Gratifications, and Dependency -- The Cybernetic Tradition -- Spiral of Silence -- Lineation Theory -- The Rhetorical Tradition -- Kenneth Burke's Equipment for Living -- The Critical Tradition -- Critical Media Theories -- Feminist Media Studies -- Bell hooks's Critique of Media -- Applications & Implications -- Notes.

Culture and Society -- The Semiotic Tradition -- Linguistic Relativity -- Elaborated and Restricted Codes -- The Cybernetic Tradition -- Communication Networks and the Process of Diffusion -- Cross-Cultural Adaptation Theory -- The Phenomenological Tradition -- Cultural Hermeneutics -- The Sociocultural Tradition -- Ethnography of Communication -- Performance Ethnography -- The Critical Tradition -- Modernism -- Postmodernism -- Poststructuralism and the Work of Michel Foucault -- Postcolonialism -- The Rhetorical Tradition -- Critical Rhetoric -- Dana Cloud's Materiality of Discourse -- Applications & Implications -- Notes.