Communication Theory as Liberal Education

Communication Theory as Liberal Education (CTLE) asks students to connect theories in concrete and specific terms with a wide variety of significant concerns in their lives, such as: How do communicators co-create shared and conflicting meanings? How do we use communication to construct our identities and relationships? How can communication be used to persuade, how does it oppress, and how can it be used to liberate?

By considering several significant families of communication theory-rhetorical, social psychological, phenomenological, cybernetic, semiotic, sociocultural, critical, and non-Western-students learn distinctive, detailed answers to these questions. CTLE also teaches students to use each theory as a lens for thinking critically about other theories' answers.

The book begins with a general discussion of the human need to understand the world, the limits of ordinary understanding, differences between lay and scholarly understandings/theories, and the meaning of studying the latter as liberal education. The text then turns to exemplars of the ancient roots of the field, followed by more modern theories, and culminates in theories developed by women and people of color, and from non-Western perspectives. It concludes by discussing communication theory, liberal education, and the challenges of living a meaningful and good life in a "post-truth" era characterized by unprecedented connectivity, diversity, polarization, uncertainty, and globalized risks.

Communication Theory as Liberal Education is ideal for upper-division and graduate courses in communication theory and in communication education, as well as college curricula designed explicitly to advance liberal education.