Communication Studies in Classification of Scientific Disciplines

Abstract

The article attempts to determine the specifics of communication studies, its place and role in the system of scientific disciplines. The author emphasizes the importance of development of this science, especially in today’s conditions of constant growth of threats and challenges in the social communication process. The main arguments of the author are as follows: firstly, communication studies will give new opportunities for theoretical and practical study of social communication processes; secondly, in the age of globalization, development of communication studies is a factor for the further development of science in general, as well as social life in all its dimensions. Discussing with the theorists, the author of the article tends in his thoughts to an interpretation proposed by T. Kotarbinski that “the science is any set of human knowledge where one can distinguish the subject of intellectual study and specific specialization” [5]. The specificity of communication studies corresponds to these basic criteria: firstly, it has a relatively defined subject of study and the field of research (all that is related to communication of people and social groups); secondly, for research in this area there is an inexhaustible array of open sources of information; thirdly, there is a developed network of scientific institutions on the basis of which it is possible to develop and implement such researches; fourthly, the advances in the field of communication studies will always have not only theoretical value, but also practical application in the institutions of higher education, where the specialists of corresponding specialization are educated and trained. According to the results of the research, the author comes to the idea that communication studies belong to the sphere of social sciences. For the proof of this concept, the scientist provides for a number of arguments.