This edition continues the framework developed in the previous edition. We have organized communication theory around two intersecting elements context and theoretical traditions and have shown, across the chapters of the book, how various theoretical traditions have added to our knowledge of eight communication contexts. We believed that this framework accurately portrays the diversity and complexity of the communication discipline. We hope this framework provides a useful organizing scheme for professors around which they can develop the course and for students seeking to understand connections, trajectories and relationships among the theories. We have added a feature that we think students will appreciate boxed quotations from various theorists reflecting what they would like students to know about their work.