Do campo acadêmico da comunicação ao arquipélago dos estudos de mídia?

Abstract

This article reports the main stages through which the understanding of the form and meaning of communication studies was constructed. At first it proposes a preliminary analysis of the concept of communication and points out how its emergence occurred. Following this it shows how we move from the classical paradigm to its post-paradigmatic questioning. In conclusion it suggests that seeing the matter according this recapitulation, it would be better, perhaps, to use the metaphor of the archipelago, rather than the field one, to summarize and express our epistemological understanding of this area of academic activity. Keywords: media studies, epistemology, history of the communicational thought.