CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Dervin, B. (1984). A theoretic perspective and research approach for generating research helpful to communication practice. Public Relations Research and Education, 1 (1),30-45. Reprinted in: B. Dervin & L. Foreman-Wernet (with E. Lauterbach) (Eds.). (2003). Sense-Making Methodology reader: Selected writings of Brenda Dervin (pp.251-268). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
© Hampton Press and Brenda Dervin (2003), reprinted by permission of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (1984).

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ABSTRACT:
In this article, Dervin addresses the divide that exists between research and practice in the field of communication. She debates several existing explanations for this divide and concludes that the current model of communication employed in the field prevents both useful diagnosis of communication practice and the creation of alternative means of practice. As she critiques the core source-based assumptions of the normative approach to communication research, she outlines the use of the Sense-Making Methodology as a radical departure from these assumptions. This new methodology, Dervin argues, is an open-ended, receiver-based view of communication and information, useful not only as a research foundation, but also as an alternatiuve way of looking at the actual practice of communicating both by those doing the practicing and those observing it. Throughout the article, Dervin draws comparisons between current and prior work and how it might be influenced by Sense-Making Methodology. She presents a large number of examples of research findings, as well as a discussion of potential applications of the theory.

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