ABSTRACT
Numerous reasons lie behind the effort to criticize and to de-Westernize communication research in the non-Western world. Apart from researchers’ emotional need for self-identity as well as their practical academic requirements, much of the impulse springs from questioning of the applicability of mainstream Western academic thinking in non-Western societies. The major impetus for de-Westernization comes from the problematic contradiction that theory is both a product of culture and a tool for analyzing it. Therefore, we must ask ourselves if we can understand and analyze the nature of non-Western societies with theories formulated in Western cultures. In other words, how are we to understand de-Westernization if we rely all the time on a Western script in which even our academic language is a part of the Western cultural heritage? And if we cannot define or describe de-Westernization, then, in the end, what is the significance of differentiating between Western and non-Western in communication research?
