Communication Studies Resource Guide

While the definitions of communication vary according to the theoretical frames of reference employed and the stress placed upon certain aspects of the total process, they all include five fundamental factors: an initiator; a recipient; a mode or vehicle; a message; and an effect.

Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) is an intergroup theory of interpersonal communication. CAT has sparked a great deal of research over the past five decades, with parallel and intersecting traditions of experimental, survey, and discourse‐based research examining the dynamics of communication, along with its antecedents and consequences, in a plethora of contexts.

In broad terms, communication refers to the transmission of something from one location to another where the “thing” that is transmitted may be a message, a signal, a meaning, and so on, where both the transmitter and the receiver must share a common code so that the meaning of the information contained in the message may be interpreted without error.