Growth and transformation of communication studies in U. S. higher education: Towards reinterpretation

Systematic data on the recent history of communication studies in U.S. higher education are much needed. Statistical data can mislead, however, when numbers are reported without careful attention to the shifting classification schemes that underlie them. The work that is needed in order to understand the recent emergence of a communication discipline is at least as much theoretical and interpretive as it is empirical. To illustrate this point, we explore two types of indicators of growth and transformation of communication studies: statistics on degrees granted and trends in the classification of books and serials. For each type of indicator we show that the emergence of communication as a category has involved qualitative transformation of the category itself as well as quantitative growth within the category. This categorical transformation, and its deeper roots in the evolution of communication as a cultural practice, will be basic to any adequate interpretation of our discipline's increasing centrality in academe and in society.