Dervin et al. (1993): Toward a Communication Theory of Dialogue

TOWARD A COMMUNICATION THEORY OF DIALOGUE

Brenda Dervin
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH, USA
dervin.1@osu.edu

John W. Higgins
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, USA
higginsJ@usfca.edu

Robert T. Huesca
Trinity University
San Antonio, TX, USA
rhuesca@trinity.edu

Tony Osborne

and

Priya Jaikumar-Mahey

CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Dervin, B., Higgins, J., Huesca, R., Osborne, T., & Jaikumar-Mahey, P. (1993). Toward a communication theory of dialogue. Media Development, XL (2), 54-61.
© Media Development (1993).

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. The published version was extracted from a conference paper originally delivered as: Dervin, B., Jaikumar-Mahey, P., Osborne, T., Huesca, R., & Higgins, J. (1992, August). The problematics of dialogue: Some ideas in the process of becoming. Paper presented at the meeting of the International Association of Mass Communication Research, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

ABSTRACT:
The authors review a variety of historical treatments of the term “dialogue” by examining their ontological and epistemological assumptions. They bring this review to fruition by describing and comparing seven stances toward dialogue which emerge from the literature: (1) dialogue as natural human condition, (2) dialogue as dialectic, (3) dialogue as ontological state of being, (4) dialogue as personality/cultural trait, (5) dialogue as communicative recipe, (6) dialogue as communicative competence, and (7) dialogue as intersubjectivity, interaction. They find these approaches wanting because while they are primarily noun-oriented; thus, these stances point to dialogue as performative, they do not position dialogic practice as a focus for theorizing. The authors argue for the development of a verb-oriented theory of dialogue, what they conclude by calling a “practical theory of dialogue.”

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