--- title: Introduction to Communication description: This subject covers the foundational theories, models, and history of human communication across various contexts. Learners will understand how messages are created, transmitted, and interpreted in interpersonal, group, and public settings. category: social-sciences subcategory: communication-studies difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/introduction-to-communication --- # Introduction to Communication This subject covers the foundational theories, models, and history of human communication across various contexts. Learners will understand how messages are created, transmitted, and interpreted in interpersonal, group, and public settings. ## Available Resources 3 Books • 2 Courses • 2 Websites ## Books ### 1. Understanding Human Communication **Author:** Ronald B. Adler, George Rodman, Athena du Pré Standard introductory survey covering perception, listening, verbal and nonverbal codes, interpersonal relationships, small-group dynamics and public speaking. Working through it gives students a shared vocabulary for analysing everyday interaction and a structured method for preparing presentations. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199334323?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, communication-studies ### 2. A First Look at Communication Theory **Author:** Em Griffin Griffin's survey presents roughly thirty communication theories one per chapter, each with its origins, core claims and critiques. Students finish able to name the right theory for a situation and judge how well evidence supports it. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0073385026?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, communication-studies ### 3. The Medium is the Massage **Author:** Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore McLuhan and designer Quentin Fiore's 1967 typographic collage arguing that communication media reshape perception more than their content does. Short and deliberately disorienting, it launched a thesis that underpins nearly all later media theory. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1584230703?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, communication-studies ## Courses ### 1. Introduction to Communication Since Antiquity, scholars have appreciated the importance of communication: as social beings, we cannot exist without communication. We need to interact with people around us, to make sense of the world and to position ourselves in a wider social and cultural reality. In this course, we look at how and why communication evolved as a science and reflect on today’s dominant paradigms. The course also extends beyond the boundaries of communication science itself, exploring dimensions of history, sociology and psychology. Join our class, together with people all over the world. Introduction to Communication Science explores some of the basic theories, models and concepts from the fields of mass, interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. The course begins with a consideration of several basic models, subsequently progressing to the history of communication theory, linear effect-oriented theories, the reception approach and, finally, exploring theories on the production and reinforcement of culture through communication. Upon completion of this course, students should: • have knowledge of the history and development of communication science; • have knowledge of the dominant theoretical approaches within communication science; • have knowledge and understanding of the most important models and concepts in this field. Beginning the week of February 16, 2015, you will be able to join Signature Track, a system that verifies your identity when you take an exam. This option will allow you to earn a Verified Certificate, which provides formal recognition of your achievements in the course and includes the University of Amsterdam logo. Before then, you can complete a “test run” of the exam. You can then re-take the exam after the Verified Certificate becomes available. For information regarding Verified Certificates, see https://courserahelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201212399-Verified-Certificates" **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Duration:** 28 hours of videos and assignments | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/communication **Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, communication-studies ### 2. Interpersonal Communication Wharton professor Maurice Schweitzer's four-week course on cooperation, trust, deception, and persuasion in professional settings. Learners finish able to build trusting relationships, detect deception, construct apologies, and choose media that fit a given message. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-communication-skills **Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, communication-studies ## Websites ### 1. natcom.org NatCom.org is a hub for communication studies, offering scholarly articles, teaching resources, and information on conferences, professional development, and research for students, educators, and researchers. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://natcom.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, communication-studies ### 2. openstax.org/subjects/communication OpenStax is a nonprofit that provides free, openly licensed textbooks. The Communications section offers an Introduction to Communication textbook with chapters on the communication process, verbal and nonverbal skills, listening, interpersonal and group communication, public speaking, and related study resources. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://openstax.org/subjects/communication **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, communication-studies --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/introduction-to-communication