CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Dervin, B. (1994). Whose effects are they anyway? Or how can you locate effects in all this fog? In C. J. Hamelink & O. Linne (Eds.), Mass communication research: On problems and policies and the art of asking the right questions (pp. 121-129). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
© Ablex Publishing (1994).

CAUTION:
The paper as presented below is a pre-publication version of the published article; as such, it does not reflect any last minute editing changes, nor does it provide pagination markers.

ABSTRACT:
In this paper published in a festschrift honoring James Halloran, Dervin interrogates the contests and contradictions in communication studies arising from writings of those who eschew the search for communication “effects” as well as those who make it their raison d’etre. Dervin details an argument which proposes that communication studies: (a) has been looking for effects in the wrong place—across time rather then in specific moments in time; in state conditions rather than process conditions; (b) has confined the meaning of the word “effects” to a search for patterns in rigidities and has not allowed for the possibility that effects may be found as well in patterns of flexibilities; (c) has excluded, even while protesting otherwise, constructing human beings from the scholarship enterprise; and (d) has not allowed for the possibility that humans have stories to tell about effects and that these stories may provide entry points for scholarly study.

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