Development of the Western Model: Toward a Reconciliation of Eastern and Western Perspectives

Although communication as a formal discipline is one of the youngest of the sciences, it has roots which extend back through the arts and philosophy at least as far back as the Greeks. Even today, Aristotle's rhetoric plays an important part in the training of many communication scholars. As a young and eclectic discipline, communication has drawn substance from many related fields and has diversified in theory as well as methods of inquiry. In spite of the diversity of its ancestry and the scope of its ecclecticism, recent developments have led to increased interest in the common characteristics which communication theorists share. Particularly, as communication has begun to find world-wide applications, many workers both theoretical and applied have begun to question the applicability of an essentially Western discipline like communication to problems in the East. This essay, while acknowledging the diversity and