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The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Vol. 30 No. 1 Jan.-Mar. 2005 132 Communication Study in the 20 th Century : Milestones and Trends Shannon, a scientific scholar, viewed communication objectively and in a generalized manner as “the transmis- sion and reception of information.” By contrast, I.A. Richards, a humanist philosopher, posited that communica- tion is “the generation of meaning.” This observation recognized the individual differences in the com- munication process. Although not contradictory, both definitions failed to address the concerns that other theorists had in mind. In light of recognizing that inquiry into communication combined both scientific and humanistic methods, Frey et al (2002) defined communica- tion as “the management of messages for the purpose of creating meaning.” This definition gave no credence to a particular stance but focused instead on depicting the essence of the communication process. By this definition, communication was looked upon as intentional despite its often accidental results. Rather uniquely, it embraced the concerns of the arts and science. It welcomed the study of both verbal and nonverbal messages and their meanings or relationships. History tells us who we have been and thereby helps us understand who we are. As an overview of the history of communication study, a discussion of its significant periods in the 20 th century is presented below. Early Rhetoric (1900 - 1950) Early in the previous century, communication was not yet estab- lished as a discipline all to itself. In a number of US universities, the closest thing to communication studies were speech courses taught by professors from the English department. A course in speech, then, did not have a status equal to one in literature. During these early years, speech departments offered courses that gave practical advice to those trying to influence audiences through public address, oral interpretation of literature, radio broadcasts, drama, debate, and roundtable discussions. Speech teachers drew on Greek and Roman wisdom such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian for instruction in public address. In 1914, some speech scholars broke away from the National Council of Teachers of English and formed the National Association of Academic Teachers of Public Speak- ing. 1 In order to garner respect for themselves, NAATPS emphasized that speech professionals should endeavor to gain “a scientific frame of mind” and to “undertake scientific investigation” to gain respectability in academia. It was not until 1935 that departments of speech were created in over 200American colleges. The communication field did not intrinsically take on the scientific method until after World War II. Wichelns (1925) established the neo-Aristotelian method of rhetorical criticism at Cornell. He stressed rhetoric as a way to communicate with audiences with the resulting emphasis on effect, not beauty like literature. He espoused the use of Aristotle’s categories of logical, emotional, and ethical appeals to evaluate persuasive discourse. This new method of speech criticism dominated the field for the next few decades. However, for most speech teachers, rhetoric was an art and thus did not correlate well with the scientific quantitative study of public address. Media Effects (1930 - 1960) Before World War II, leading social scientists scientifically examined media effects, and called the inquiry communication research. They looked upon mass communica- tion media like radio, television, etc. as forms of entertainment rather than areas worthy of study. With a pressing need to win support for the war effort, social scientists took a behavioral approach to study the effects of persuasive messages on mass audiences. As early as 1927, a political scientist named Lasswell investigated the powerful effects of media, especially in propaganda, and, in 1948, proposed a five- question model with a breakdown of five components: Who says what through which channel, to whom, with what effect. In 1942, Carl Hovland, a psychologist, conducted an experimental study on the effects of media (training films, in this case) on attitude change. In 1948, Paul 1 Ironically the abbreviation NAATPS was found hard to pronounce. The organization later changed its name to the Speech Association of America (SAA).