COMMUNICATION AS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE

Lecturer : Dr. Hj. Muli Umiaty Noer, M.Hum

Group 2
1. MUH. KHAUJAKI AL AMKANAKI
2. RISKY FIRMANSYAH RASYID
3. FIRMAN
 COMMUNICATION AS
MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE
• As a science that can be applied in social life, communication has long attracted the attention of scientists
from outside the field of communication itself. They are generally experts who have a name in their field,
then interested in studying aspects of communication..

• Communication in its growth process is a study of rhetoric and journalism which has a lot to do with the
formation of public opinion (public opinion). Therefore, in the map of science, communication is considered
by many parties as a monodisciplinary science that is based on political science. The monodisciplinary
understanding here sees the position of science standing alone with its own characteristics, such as
engineering, chemistry, literature, agriculture. However, with the rapid development of society, especially
advances in genetics and communication technology, as well as in other fields have had an impact on the
increasingly blurred boundaries of authority and function of some sciences, so that science that was
previously mono-disciplinary tends to be MULTIDISCIPLINES.

• Communication has a philosophical nature that human life is actually determined by three elements, namely
Biological elements, Physical elements, and Social elements. If these three elements are depicted in a
diagram, the relationship between the three elements can be seen in the diagram of the position of science.
• If we observe the diagram above, it appears that all sciences that study human behavior in society, such as
sociology, economics, politics, law, psychology and communication managers are in one social circle. This
means that all sciences that study human behavior in society have a very close relationship with each other.
The similarity is not only because they are in the same circle (social), but also because they have the same
material object, namely studying human behavior in society, whether it is in relation to human activities in the
economic sector, government or regulations (law).
• Communication as a multidisciplinary science has been developed by many scientists who come from
outside communication. Some of them can be mentioned namely jhon Dewey, Charles Horton Cooley,
Robet Park, George H. Mead, Kurt Lewin, Nobert Weiner, Lasswell, Hovland, La, Sfeld, Schramm, and
Rogers. These experts have contributed their thoughts from various research results and studies in the
form of concepts, models, and theories which will contribute a lot to the development of
Communication Science.
John Dewey (Psychology and Philosophy)

Dewey was a liberal psychologist and

philosopher. During his time teaching
philosophy at the University of Michigan
(1884-1894), Dewey influenced Cooley and
Park who became his students. Dewey
wanted a newspaper that could publish
research results, although the newspaper
Dewey wanted never materialized during his
lifetime, Dewey did not doubt the potential
of newspapers to bring about social reform.
When Dewey moved to teach at the
University of Chicago (1894-1904), he
managed the School of Education
laboratories. However, because his teaching
laboratory was deemed too radical by the
Chancellor, Dewey was dismissed and moved
to the University of Colombia.
Charles Horton Cooley (sociology)

Charles Horton Cooley is a sociologist from

the United States. Cooley in putting forward
his theory was influenced by the romantic
school that envisioned a common,
harmonious and peaceful life. The results of
his work, among others: Social Process Social
Organization Human nature and social order
Robert E. Park

During his time as a journalist, Park

developed his analytical skills to observe
human behavior, especially the deviant
behavior of the urban poor. He also tried to
see how the type of journalism had the
power to create social change in the United
States.
Geoge Herbert Mead (Philosophy and
Psychology)

From his lecture notes, it appears that Mead

was influenced by John Dewey and Cooley
who established communication as a part of
socialization. Through a social science
approach, Mead recognizes communication
as the most basic thing for human
relationships.

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Kurt Lewin (Psychology)
One of Lewin's most important
contributions to the study of
communication was his attention to
studying group dynamics in relation to
communication. How individuals are
influenced by the groups they join, how
authoritarian and democratic leadership
types affect group productivity. He also
looked at how being attached to a group
can influence an individual to conform
to group norms, Lewin's studies were
largely conducted using experiments.

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Nobert Weiner (Math)
One of Weiner's contributions to
communication studies is the Cybernetic
theory that discusses the continuation of
information flow in terms of recording,
conditioning, storage, transmission and
dissemination between one system and
another.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

Harold D. Lasswell (Political Science)
Lasswell's contribution to the
development of communication science
is found in his book Propaganda and
Communication in World History which
consists of 3 volumes. In that book
Lasswell made a formulation that would
later be widely used in mass
communication research, namely Who
says what in which channel with what
effects.

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Carl Hovland (Experimental psychology)
When the war ended, Hovland returned to
Yale University and established a program of
communication and ci change from his
experiences both when he worked in the
Department of Defense and he became a
teacher, Hovland funds compiled his notes
and then compiled into books with the titles
Experiments on Mass Communication
(1949) and Communication and Persuasion
(1953).

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Paul F. Lazarsfeld (Math and
sociology)
Through a study conducted with Chilil Katz
on the influence of mass media on
presidential election behavior in Erie County,
Ohio (1944), Lazarsfeld formulated a two-
step communication theory that mass media
has very little influence on election behavior
compared to interpersonal channels that rely
on the role of opinion leaders..

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Claude E. Shannon (Electronics)
Shannon's significant contribution to
Communication Science comes from his two
papers that discuss information theory. Both
papers were published in the Bell System
Technical Journal in July and October 1948..

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Wilbur Schramm (Literature)
Doctor Schramm was the first to talk about
the North-South information flow gap long
before the problem received international
attention. Schramm was the first to
interweave studies from other fields such as
social psychology, anthropology, political
science, economics to develop the study of
human-to-human communication.
Everett M. Rogers (Rural sociology)
Rogers wrote about 25 books on
communication from various aspects. Many
of his books and works are used as reference
materials for doctoral students.
Nora C. Quebral (Communication)
Dr. Querbal originally obtained his bachelor's
degree in English at the University of the
Philippines (1950), Master of Science (M.Sc.)
in Journalism at the University of Wisconsin
Madison (USA) 1956-57. Back in the
Philippines he taught and
Institute of Development Communication at
the University of the Philippines and became
professor emeritus for 27 years.
Astrid Sunarti Susanto (Sociology of
Communication)
Dr. Astrid began writing books on
communication that have become a reference
for communication students in Indonesia,
including; Communication; Theory and
Frartek, Philosophy of Communication, and
Public Opinion..
Muhammad Alwi Dahlan (Communication)
Known as the FATHER OF COMMUNICATION
SCIENCE, in 1997 he was inaugurated as
Professor of Communication in Social and
Political Sciences, University of Indonesia,
and was Minister of Information in the last
cabinet led by President Soeharto (March 21,
1998).
 CONCLUSIONS
• After reading and understanding the discussion this time we can
conclude that Communication Science develops along with our
environment both from the social environment and the workplace, not
only communication people who develop communication science.
THANK YOU