Expertise

One can never truly possess an exhaustive knowledge of communication, as it is a field of perpetual learning and observation. Society’s systems for communicating are in constant growth, ceaselessly improving, diminishing, expanding, and changing communication; however, one can be expert at studying and analyzing communication. This form of expertise manifests itself in strategic methods of research, attentive observance, and proficiency in Communications theories, concepts, and models. Expertise in Communications demands a complex and comprehensive understanding of human behaviors. Extensive cultural awareness, mastery of strategic discourse, and a relentless fascination with human interaction are essential to a communicative expert. It is impossible to be a master of this discipline without the ability to think beyond the confines of communication, in its simplest and most direct form, spoken word. Historically, scholars within the field have been deemed experts subsequent to their development of theories and models. To this day, Claude Shannon’s “Linear Model,” Wilbur Schramm’s “Interactional Model,” and Dean Barnlund’s “Transactional Model” remain “the three most prominent” (p.11 West and Turner) communication models for evaluating the communication process. An expert in Communications, to the extent that one can be, must assume a certain thought process. This is characterized by viewing communication as the source of order in the existence of humankind. “Scholars in the discipline of communication see communication as the organizing element of human life” (p.6 Littlejohn and Foss).