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Introduction
This review is not a history of the beginning of communication study as that probably goes back to the development of speech among humans or at least to the time of the Aristotle and Plato. Rather this is a review of some of the literature in our field about the man some have called the founder (Rogers, 1994) or the definer (Tankard, 1988) of the field. There are many accounts about this beginning surrounding Schramm and others who have a claim to the beginning of what is now called Communication Studies or, less recently, Mass Communication. What is clear historically is that Wilbur Schramm made significant contributions to institutionally establishing the field of communication as it is defined and practiced in universities in the U.S. and indirectly with the establishment of similar studies around the world. As is common in this review, the article will present the published record surrounding this beginning in the U.S. at mid-20th century that concerns Schramm's role in the establishment of the field, and the remembered and the contested accounts of this establishment.
One reason why this history is important is that the field of Communication Studies, as it is often referred to currently, needs to reflect upon itself so that it can justify its rationale for being a large and flourishing part of global university study. It is often criticized as being without a core set of theories and methodologies to justify itself as a social science or of being too undefined, all-inclusive, and even chaotic to justify its standing as a discipline at all. As we will see subsequently, all of these issues were with the field from the beginning of "communication" studies in the early- to mid-20th century when Schramm attempted to move the established departments of journalism and speech (rhetoric) into a single communication department or school. That he did not entirely succeed is still evident in the U.S. at least by separate departments of mass and interpersonal communication. But he did succeed in placing "communication" as an important identifier for what had been very separate studies within the American academy. But before we approach the story of Wilbur Schramm as an important figure in the field, we might well begin with the first...