1744-6716 Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 1744-6716 University of Westminster Press 10.16997/wpcc.254 Commentary Media and Communication as a Field of Research Nordenstreng Kaarle kaarle.nordenstreng@uta.fi University of Tampere, FI 30 01 2017 12 1 40 42 15 12 2016 15 12 2016 Copyright: © 2017 The Author(s) 2017 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

The field has been characterized by enormous expansion and diversification with abundance and popularity not resulting in integration. This contribution considers the roots of the discipline to be very long leading back to the enlightenment, early democracy and diverse international sources such as the first freedom of information bill in Sweden’s Diet in 1766 and the nineteenth century as Hardt (2001) details.

Academically the field is something of a sunrise industry comparable even to computer science and biotechnology as Web of Science data (Nordenstreng, 2015) indicates with exponential growth notable from the 1990s. Dramatic increases in publications, students and the blossoming of associations has followed. Dominated by US/English language research, diversification has been felt in approach and focus (Koivisto and Thomas, 2010). Looking back to an earlier phase concerned with modernization is however instructive for example Lerner (1958) or the comments and debate surrounding Berelson (1959). Currently, extremely dispersed communication studies is characterized by presentism with gaps such as the absence of national histories of communication research very apparent.

Reporting Denis McQuail’s thoughts on the conference’s headings this contribution suggests that traditions of inquiry from social science and literary/cultural studies have not been ‘resolved or got together’ (Nordenstreng, 2015).

 Mass communication publications modernization media studies presentism

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 Author Information

From 1971 Kaarle Nordenstreng has worked as Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, at the University of Tampere with visiting professorships undertaken at numerous universities including those of Maryland, Minnesota and Texas at Austin. He is the author or editor of over 30 books including the co-authored Normative Theories of the Media: Journalism in Democratic Societies (2009), winner of the Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for best research-based book on journalism/mass communication (2010) and more recently the edited books (with Daya Thussu) Mapping BRICS Media (2015) and (with Richard C. Vincent) Towards Equity in Global Communication (2016).

 Berelson B. The state of communication research Public Opinion Quarterly 1959 23 1 1 2 10.1086/266840 Hardt H. Social Theories of the Press: Constituents of Communication Research, 1840s to 1920s 2001 2nd Edn. Lanham, MD Rowman and Littlefield Koivisto J. Thomas P. D. Mapping Communication and Media Research: Conjunctures, Institutions, Challenges 2010 Tampere University of Tampere Press Available at http://tampub.uta.fi/handle/10024/66336 Lerner D. The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East 1958 Glencoe, Ill. The Free Press Nordenstreng New/Old Theory in Media Cultural Studies Plenary Presentation in Conference Reframing Media/Cultural Studies in the Age of Global Crisis 19–20 June 2015 2015 University of Westminster Available at http://www.uta.fi/cmt/en/contact/staff/kaarlenordenstreng/publications/London200615.pdf