Researching communication processes from a systems theory perspective

Jeremy Foote
Purdue University

Communication is interdependent

• By definition, communication is relational; multiple actors are basically always involved

Communication is “stateful”

• People are heterogenous, which influences their communication
• People are influenced by their experiences and conversations

Current approaches have blindspots

• Nearly all communication research uses individual-level methods
• Theories about higher-level phenomena can’t be tested with individual-level methods
• Interdependence makes higher-level behavior unpredictable, but this is typically ignored

Spread on a network

Systems theory can help

• Focuses on:
  • Environment in which communication occurs
  • Feedback loops and recursion - interdependent processes
  • Emergence - identifying higher-level patterns
• Methods include:
  • Longitudinal modeling
  • Social network analysis
  • Agent-based modeling