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

Communication Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...

– purposeful activity of exchanging information and meaning across space and time using various technical or natural means, whichever is available or preferred. Communication requires a sender, a message, a medium and a recipient, although the receiver does not have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space.

Essence of communication

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

Semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

Branches of communication

Types of communication

Types of communication by scope

* Intercultural communication * International communication * Interpersonal communication * Intrapersonal communication * Mass communication *

Nonverbal communication Nonverbal communication is the transmission of messages or signals through a nonverbal platform such as eye contact (oculesics), body language (kinesics), social distance (proxemics), touch (Haptic communication, haptics), voice (prosody (lingui ...

* Verbal communication * Organizational communication

Types of communication by mode

* Computer-mediated communication ** Email * Conversation *

Mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

* Mass media **

Book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

Film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

** Journalism ** News media **

Newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

** Technical writing **

Video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

Telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

( outline) **

Morse Code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...

Radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

Telegraphy Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

** Telephone **

Television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

* Verbal communication * Writing **

Social Network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

Fields of communication

* Communication studies * Cognitive linguistics * Conversation analysis * Crisis communication *

Discourse analysis Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is an approach to the analysis of written, spoken, or sign language, including any significant semiotic event. The objects of discourse analysis (discourse, writing, conversation, communicative sy ...

* Environmental communication * Health communication * Interpersonal communication *

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

* Mass communication * Mediated cross-border communication * Organizational communication * Political communication * Pragmatics * Risk communication * Science communication *

* Sociolinguistics

Theories, schools, and approaches

Theories of communication * Agenda-setting theory * Content analysis * Community structure theory * Conversation analysis * Coordinated management of meaning * Critical theory * Cues-filtered-out theory * Cultivation theory * Cultural studies * Cybernetics * Decision downloading * Diffusion of innovations * 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 * Problematic Integration Theory * Relational dialectics * Scheme (linguistics) * Social learning theory * Social construction of reality * Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) * Social Information Processing theory * Social Penetration Theory * Spiral of silence * 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

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

General communication concepts

General topics of communication

* Autocommunication * Empathy * People skills * Persuasion * Propaganda *

Public speaking Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It all ...

* Reading * Rhetoric * Small-group communication *

Speech Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

* Translation * Writing

General communication terms

* Censorship * Community structure * Cultural imperialism *

Democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

* Dialectic * Digital divide * Freedom of the press * Freedom of speech * Hegemony * Identity * Imagined community * Information society * Late capitalism * Media imperialism *

Morpheme A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...

* Nationalism * Phoneme * Postmodernity *

Public sphere The public sphere () is an area in social relation, social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion, Social influence, influence political action. A "Public" is "of or c ...

* Social capital *

Social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

* Sophist * Stereotyping * Stigma * Syllable * Transactive communication * Universal service * Avatar (virtual reality)

Communication scholars

* Theodor Adorno *

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

* Roland Barthes * Gregory Bateson * Walter Benjamin * Kenneth Burke * Manuel Castells * Cicero * Noam Chomsky * 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 * Juri Lotman * Niklas Luhmann * Herbert Marcuse *

George Herbert Mead George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, Sociology, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago. He was one of the key figures in the development of pragmatis ...

* Marshall McLuhan * Desmond Morris * Maxwell McCombs * Walter J. Ong * Vance Packard * Charles Sanders Peirce * Chaïm Perelman *

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...