Networks : Measurement Techniques

The idea of structure is one of the fundamental issues that any science must address. In its broadest sense, structure refers to the arrangement of the parts of the system that the science studies. Structure is fundamental because it significantly determines the processes of the system, that is, the ways in which the system can function or behave, The science of human communication studies the communication systems that people use as they live their daily lives. Like every. other scientific object, structure is a fundamental part of every communication system. Identification of this structure requires that we identify the people that comprise the various elements of the system and determine the arrangement of information exchange among these parts. In the science of human communication, the study of structure is usually undertaken under the rubric of network analysis. The general idea of a network is one that is familiar to most people since we have all had frequent contact with concrete networks such as telephones, highways, and electrical power lines. But networks of social structure, of which communication is one type, are harder. to identify. The difficulty stems from the fact that communication networks are comprised of abstract human behavior over time, rather than concrete physical material such as wires, pipes, and macadam. Communication networks, then, are the regular patterns of personto-person contacts that we discern as people exchange information in a human social system. By observing the communication behavior of people we can infer who is informationally connected to whom, and