The field of communication’s uptake of computers, networks, and the internet: 1970–2000

Abstract

Abstract Our goal in this article is to understand the historical sequences as well as consequences of the internet on the development of the academic field of communication. As a field that has one foot in the study of a most basic and necessary human activity, and another foot in the study of innovative technology, has scholarship in the field of communication followed internet developments? Is there a lag between technological developments and communication research focused on those developments? We attempt to answer our questions by searching for keywords (such as computer, internet, CMC, etc.) in content from communication journals from 1970 to 2000. We find that a large number of keywords were entirely absent, and many of the occurrences involved the same small number of terms, indicative of a relatively narrow and/or shallow amount of interest in these phenomena. The dominance of terms like ‘computer’ and ‘internet’ (and, eventually, ‘Web’) indicate a generalist tone at work in these articles. There is relatively little breadth in the vocabulary related to computers and the internet, suggesting that the field of communication that was seemingly trying to digest the entire (constructed) category of behavior associated with computers and the internet in one gigantic linguistic bite rather than focusing on activities taking place via this new medium. There was not yet a sense of meaningful differentiation in what internet-based communication could involve; ‘internet’ communication was simply communication occurring by means of an internet-based delivery system; a new medium, figuratively and literally.