Networks

Communication networks are the patterns of contact that are produced through the exchange of messages among actors across space and time. Social networks, more generally, describe the patterns of relations among these actors. Communication researchers were among the pioneers of the study of communication and social networks. In recent years, the study of social networks has grown dramatically, attracting an interdisciplinary community of researchers from biology, communication, computer science, mathematics, physics, political science, psychology, sociology, and statistics. While the major focus on network scholarship has been on describing networks, recently there have been substantial theoretical and methodological advances in explaining the emergence of networks. The future of scholarship on communication networks is exciting as researchers make rapid theoretical and methodological strides in understanding and enabling networks.