About this chapter

"Communication Meaning" examines the field of human communication studies and the impulses driving a key stage of pioneering efforts in the development of communication study and teaching in Australia. It outlines six major groupings of meanings and senses of the word "communication" that researchers, teachers and practitioners used at the time of the 1980 inaugural conference of the Australian Communication Association (now the Australian & Aotearoa New Zealand Communication Association). 

Opportunities for conscious cooperation among academics from diverse disciplines to expand understandings of communication are outlined. The chapter incorporates points from the author's paper "Finding Communication Meaning in Australia," presented at the Association's organizing conference. Commencing from a challenge that Communication Studies is not a discipline, the paper offers clarification of uses of the word "communication" in the academy and in practice as an impulse for the development of a coherent field of study. 

It is suggested the new Australian Communication Association encourage inquiries well-grounded in collaborative understandings of the diverse theoretical explanations of communication. Reference is made to efforts among mass communication and communication researchers who advocate pluralistic perspectives on communication. 

The chapter notes Canadian efforts at the time to clarify communication terminology and describes further evolution of the Australian Journal of Communication, as well as detailing the broadening of course offerings and some faculty personalities contributing to this early development of communication education. In closing, it considers the promise provided by focusing on communication as the mutual development of understanding and knowledge. 

Keywords: human communication studies, communication meaning, communication terminology, theories of communication, communication study and teaching, Australian communication education, Australian & Aotearoa New Zealand Communication Association.