Revisiting “Communication Theory as a Field”

This article revisits Robert T. Craig’s “Communication Theory as a Field” on its 25th anniversary to reassess its relevance for contemporary communication studies. It foregrounds mediation and communication technologies’ role in shaping how scholars think and write about communication. Focusing on the 1990s media environment, the analysis draws on Walter Ong’s insights into the sensory, technological, and historical conditions of knowledge production. “Communication Theory as a Field” is shown to echo the spatial-visualist logics of Web 1.0. A comparative reading with Peter Ramus highlights the unintended visualism of Craig’s project and challenges the ocular paradigm long dominant in communication theory. The article advances communication-as-constitutive perspectives by advocating a “sensory rapprochement” that restores auditory, embodied, and dialogic dimensions to theory while underscoring the need for reflexivity about how evolving technologies shape disciplinary frameworks and the conditions of theorizing.