Communication Theory and Social Change

Communication Theory and Social Change

Robert T. Craig
University of Colorado at Boulder

A keynote presentation to the
Indonesian International Conference on Communication
Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta
22 November 2010

The theme of this conference, “Global Challenge to the Future of Communication: Digital Media and Communication Freedom in Public Discourse,” is fundamentally concerned with communication in relation to social change. In this paper I reflect on communication theory as an element of social change. I argue that communication theory is more than just a conceptual toolset for explaining or influencing social change. Communication theory has a growing presence in the discourse of modern societies. It is not only about society; it is also in society and contributes to the evolution of the communication practices that constitute society. Insofar as communication theory participates in the constitution of society, communication theory potentially is social change. It cultivates particular ways of understanding human social existence in terms of communication processes, ways that may challenge traditional cultural understandings and practices.
In the following sections I introduce two examples to illustrate how communication theory can be a conceptual tool for explaining society while also existing within society and participating in processes of social change. Specifically, I examine the concepts of network and ritual to show how these ideas originated and continue to evolve in particular cultural traditions in conjunction with profound changes in the communicative constitution of society. Second, I step back to take a broader view of metadiscourse—a term defined as discourse about discourse that includes both theoretical and ordinary practical ways of talking about communication. Communication theory engages critically with ordinary ideas and ways of talking about communication, such as network and ritual. The discourse of communication, on both

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