ABSTRACT
Our understanding of listening continues to change, in part because of new and exciting research that is being conducted by prominent listening scholars. As we noted in Chapter 1, listening is a relatively new area of study. As a result, theory and conceptual development lag behind those of other, more established areas of communication study (e.g., interpersonal, persuasion, health communication).1
As more listening research is conducted and as new technologies emerge, our notion of what it means to listen will likely change significantly. In this chapter we examine new areas of research and how they affect how we conceptualize listening and study listening in the future.
