Enriching the field of International Communication through signed language research: An analysis of EBSCOhost's ‘Communication & Mass Media Complete’ database

Abstract

Abstract The majority of academic discussion involving signed languages has focused on linguistic analysis, the language origin debate and deaf education. Signed languages, however, offer a rich domain of study for understanding communication in broader spheres than just these but have been largely overlooked in interdisciplinary discussion. In this article, I explore how signed languages are currently situated within the field of International Communication through analysis of EBSCOhost's ‘Communication & Mass Media Complete’ database in December 2012. Within the 770 journals included in this database, four journals that focused on deaf community and signed languages captured the majority of the international signed language articles. However, only about 34 articles incorporated signed languages internationally in 28 additional ‘mainstream’ journals. Applying Semati's framework of six themes within the field of International Communication, I show how international signed language research is only minimally addressed in three of the six themes related to nationalization, globalization and development communication, but how it offers new lenses for these areas. Finally, I argue that inclusion of signed language can expand the scope of International Communication as a whole, offering as a first example the Internet's unique role in transborder information flow among signed language users.