“Why communication?” is a question that often arises when numerouscommunication scholars reflect on their academic careers. This article utilizes the retrospection of this researcher’s academic journey, from researching audio descriptions, cross-symbols, the science of meaning, as well as the cultural creativity industry, and explores the self-identity and academic preparation of a communication scholar.
From the researcher’s perspective, the paths of communication careers are based on a combination of fate and unaltered internal knowledge and interest in the subject. The predestined academic path and unchanged interests of knowledge reflect the “variation and normality” of a communication career. The richness of such an academic career is hidden between the structures of “variation and normality,” where the two are acknowledged to be parts of the whole; in that, each aspect always requires the reflection of its reciprocal to be fully practiced.
Thus, the question “why communication?” encompasses not only other questions such as how to explore the meaning of communication behaviors and how to pursue that meaning, but also those questions that seek to know the “self-identity” of communication scholars in such careers. Furthermore, the meaning of communication, to a communication researcher, not only analyzes the finer details and richness of the structure of meaning behind behaviors (such as sharing and creating meanings), but also embraces the actions of pursuing and enriching meaning in our world.