Models, metaphors, and other scholarly meanderings: Renovating models of communication

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The construction of models have followed a piecemeal approach emphasizing segmentation and specialization. The authors argue that while prior models contribute by delineating and mapping the discrete components of the communication act, they fail to provide for an understanding of communicative acts within the context of a larger converging landscape. Each communicative act must be seen within the context of past, present, and future channel choices (or the lack thereof). A model of communication convergence is proposed which is rooted in a systems analysis of face‐to‐face and mediated forms of communication used in a definable area or by a definable population.