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... > social science subjects > communication and media studies > communication studies > communication theory > paradigms, traditions, and schools > modernism in communication theory
... > social science subjects > communication and media studies > communication studies > communication theory > theory, metatheory, methodology, and inquiry > modernism in communication theory

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modernism in communication theory  

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  • What makes the study of communication modern? Would a research study about the use of instant messaging by romantic couples in the 20th century be more modern than a study of the broadcasting of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's radio speeches in the 1930s? Does it make a difference if the romantic couple lives apart on two different continents or if the President of the United States gives weekly radio addresses in the 20th century? Would it matter whether we used an interpretive research method to study the romantic couples or an experimental design to study the radio speeches? What if the couple is gay and the President of the United States is Black? Could both studies be modern? What might be the difference in time, space, people, technology, or practice that would authorize someone to claim that his or her study of communication is modern? Questions about the modern status of communication imply that some difference in kind exists between those things and people that are modern and those that are not. If not a difference in kind, then a difference in degree is implied so that something is claimed to be more modern than something else. [Source: Encyclopedia of Communication Theory; Modernism in Communication Theory]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/modernism_in_communication_theory

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