Editor's Introduction: Home, Family, and Communication: The Horizon Through a Wide Lens

Advancing Family Communication Scholarship: Toward a Communicology of the Family

“…As in the case of mothers caring for their children in abstenia, the aforementioned example reflects how each of these dimensions is simultaneously shaping women's interpretations of their mothering experiences. We begin to understand, in other words, how every communicative act within the family context truly offers us a "horizon" (Socha, 2001) from which to explore past, present, and future coconstructions of family life. Unfortunately, it is only our socially-constructed divisions of these levels within the discipline of communication that makes these dimensions of semiotic experience appear as separate and distinct categories of interaction.…”

Editor Introduction: Reflections about Family Communication

“…We might also attend a wider array of conferences outside of the communication discipline, where friendships, associations, and inter-disciplinary authorship teams can be fostered and developed. Socha (2001) also contended in this inaugural issue that "understanding the role of ethnicity in family communication is among the most important concerns on the horizon" and "that the foundations of racism begin and can be perpetuated in family discourse at home" (p. 5). Medved (2009) called our attention this theme as well, stating that:…”

Different Transitions into Working Motherhood: Discourses of Asian, Hispanic, and African American Women

“…In the inaugural issue of the Journal of Family Communication, editor Thomas Socha (2001) said that "understanding the role of ethnicity in family communication is among the most important concerns on the horizon" (p. 5). Ethnicity centers on cultural practices associated with national origin, religion, and race with the most prominent way of studying ethnicity in family communication being cultural communication differences between groups (Gudykunst & Lee, 2001).…”