ABSTRACT
IN recent years, the discipline of communication has witnessedan increasing divergence in the way communication is per-ceived and studied, leading to the development of the field as a "multiple paradigm science." As described by Ritzer (1975, p. 12), "This is the situation in which there are several paradigms vying for hegemony within the field as a whole." While many debates have been devoted to presenting, attacking, and defending contending paradigms, the issues seem to be far from settled.
