Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2008
As the previous chapters in this volume have made amply clear, the last few years have seen a considerable increase in work related to our understanding of the roles, forms, and processes of professional communication and of the complex of forces that give rise to those roles, forms, and processes. The reasons for this upsurge of interest are doubtless manifold. Some are related to administrators' felt needs to keep “channels of communication open” in the face of exponential information growth and the increasing bureaucratlzation of many professions. One consequence of this is that lines of research funding are obtainable relatively easily for communication studies in such areas as scientific research, medicine, business, law, and military affairs.