Rhetoric and Communication: Alternative Worlds of Inquiry

Rhetoric and communication inquiry characterize the broader discipline of communication studies. The discipline has developed by retaining interest in questions of interaction and exchange, language and institutions, as well as publics and social change. The futures of such work include critical investigations into communication societies that are culturally diverse, technologically wired, local-cosmopolitan networks. I support Andrew King's position that economics should play an increasingly important role in our discipline, but I urge that inquiry be extended beyond ideological critique with its melioristic ends. Communication society should be examined in its varied and specific sites of inquiry in order to create an emergent global discipline.