Communication and Media Theory

Abstract

Communications theory dates to the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, but became a recognized academic field in the 1940s during World War II (Newby, Stepich, Lehman, & Russell, 1996). Media theorists have analyzed the development of new media and how they are connected to broader social evolution. These theories are useful to examine in regard to understanding computer learning environments as a new medium because they place it in a larger historical context.