Outline of communication

Communication is the process of generation, transmission, or reception of messages to oneself or another entity, usually via a mutually understood set of signs.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to communication:

Essence of communication

 * Main article: Communication


 * Communication theory
 * Development communication
 * Information
 * Information theory
 * Semiotics

Fields of communication

 * Communication Studies
 * Cognitive Linguistics
 * Conversation Analysis
 * Discourse Analysis
 * Interpersonal Communication
 * Linguistics
 * Mass Communication
 * Organizational Communication
 * Political Communication
 * Pragmatics
 * Semiotics
 * Sociolinguistics

Theories, schools, and approaches

 * Theories of communication
 * Agenda-setting theory
 * Biosemiotics
 * Content analysis
 * Community structure theory
 * Conversation analysis
 * Critical theory
 * Cues-filtered-out theory
 * Cultivation theory
 * Cultural studies
 * Cybernetics
 * Decision downloading
 * Diffusion of innovations
 * Dramatisming
 * Elaboration likelihood model
 * Ethnomethodology
 * Framing
 * Hermeneutics
 * Hypodermic needle model
 * Heuristic-Systematic Model
 * Hyperpersonal Model
 * Information theory
 * Knowledge gap hypothesis
 * Media ecology
 * Narrative paradigm
 * Network analysis
 * Nonviolent Communication
 * Opinion leadership
 * Political economy
 * Priming
 * Relational dialectics
 * Scheme
 * Social learning theory
 * Social construction of reality
 * Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE)
 * Social Information Processing theory
 * Social Penetration Theory
 * Spiral of silence
 * Strength of Weak Ties
 * Structuralism
 * Symbolic interactionism
 * Technology acceptance model
 * Theory of cognitive dissonance
 * Theory of Planned Behavior
 * Theory of Reasoned Action
 * Third-person effect
 * Two-step flow of communication
 * Uses and gratifications
 * Uncertainty reduction theory

History of communication

 * Main article: History of communication


 * Cave painting
 * Early postal systems
 * Heliograph
 * Historical linguistics
 * History of alphabet
 * History of the book
 * History of computer science
 * History of computing (see also Timeline of computing)
 * History of computer hardware
 * History of Internet
 * History of linguistics
 * History of mass media
 * History of radio
 * History of telegraphy
 * History of telegraph
 * History of telephone
 * History of television
 * History of writing
 * Ideograms
 * Origin of language
 * Petroglyphs
 * Pictograms
 * Proto-language
 * Semaphore line
 * Smoke signals

Forms of communication

 * Alphabet
 * Body language
 * Emotion
 * Image
 * Language
 * Symbol

General modes and types of communication

 * Autocommunication
 * Empathy
 * Computer-mediated communication
 * Health communication
 * Intrapersonal communication
 * Intercultural communication
 * Interpersonal communication
 * Mass communication
 * Non-verbal communication
 * Organizational communication
 * People skills
 * Persuasion
 * Propaganda
 * Public speaking
 * Reading
 * Rhetoric
 * Small-group communication
 * Speech
 * Translation
 * Writing

Communication industries and media vocations

 * Advertising
 * Book
 * Communication technology
 * Computers
 * Computer arts
 * Computer mediated communication
 * Computer networks
 * Conversation
 * Film
 * Graphic arts
 * Graphic Design
 * Internet
 * Journalism
 * Library
 * Mail
 * Marketing communications
 * Mass media
 * Media arts
 * Morse Code
 * News media
 * Newspaper
 * Printing
 * Public Relations
 * Radio
 * Recording
 * Small-group communication
 * Technical writing
 * Telecommunications
 * Telephone
 * Television
 * Video
 * Writing

General communication terms

 * Censorship
 * Community structure
 * Cultural imperialism
 * Democracy
 * Dialectic
 * Digital divide
 * Freedom of the press
 * Freedom of speech
 * Hegemony
 * Identity
 * Imagined community
 * Information society
 * Late capitalism
 * Media imperialism
 * Morpheme
 * Nationalism
 * Phoneme
 * Postmodernity
 * Public sphere
 * Semiotics
 * Social capital
 * Social network
 * Sophist
 * Stereotyping
 * Stigma
 * Syllable
 * Universal service
 * Avatar (virtual reality)

Communication scholars

 * Theodor Adorno
 * Aristotle
 * Roland Barthes
 * Gregory Bateson
 * Walter Benjamin
 * Kenneth Burke
 * Manuel Castells
 * Cicero
 * Noam Chomsky
 * Paul D'Angelo
 * Karl W. Deutsch
 * Walter Fisher
 * George Gerbner
 * G. Thomas Goodnight
 * Jürgen Habermas
 * Max Horkheimer
 * Harold Innis
 * Roman Jakobson
 * Irving Janis
 * Wendell Johnson
 * D. Lawrence Kincaid
 * Walter Lippman
 * Herbert Marcuse
 * George Herbert Mead
 * Marshall McLuhan
 * Desmond Morris
 * Maxwell McCombs
 * Walter J. Ong
 * Vance Packard
 * Charles Sanders Peirce
 * Plato
 * John C. Pollock
 * Neil Postman
 * Nora C. Quebral
 * Quintilian
 * I. A. Richards
 * Everett M. Rogers
 * Wilbur Schramm
 * Claude Shannon
 * Deborah Tannen
 * James W. Tankard, Jr.
 * Warren Weaver
 * Bob Woodward