Naturalistic study of communication: Its function and form

Abstract

Communication includes purposeful and meaningful actions, and an adequate study of it must incorporate both an account of actors’ meanings (naturalistic inquiry) and a description of their behaviors (objectivistic inquiry). This conceptualization assigns naturalistic inquiry a unique function based on a definition of its subject‐matter, rather than identifying it with particular (exploratory, field) types of research methods. The form of naturalistic inquiry is determined by its subject‐matter: it must include actors’ meanings and telic as well as causal explanation, and any research method consistent with the subject‐matter is appropriately “naturalistic.” Objective and naturalistic procedures are complementary both in science and in communication processes.

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