communication theory

noun

variants: or less commonly communications theory

Definition of communication theory

: a theory that deals with the technology of the transmission of information (as through the written word or a computer) between people, people and machines, or machines and machines There is some sense of the impact of telecommunications and computerization (almost all writers have gone on-line with something by now after all), but few of these fictions seem shaped in any serious way by information or communication theory. —Robert Coover, The New York Times Book Review, 18 Mar. 1984 Ms. Medsger said the three major trends that supervisors found most disturbing were the emphasis on faculty members with academic rather than journalistic experience, the elimination of journalism as a stand-alone major and the increased emphasis on communication theory at the expense of basic reporting and writing skills. —Iver Peterson, The New York Times, 6 May 1996