Communications - Definition and Overview

The term communications is used in a number of disciplines:

• communications, also known as communication studies is the academic discipline which studies communication.

• In geography, communications are the physical routes (roads, rivers, canals, railways, etc.) travelled by people in order to interact with each other. See also transportation.

• In telecommunication, the term communications has the following meanings:

1. Information transfer, among users or processes, according to agreed conventions (see communications protocol).
2. The branch of technology concerned with the representation, transfer, interpretation, and processing of data among persons, places, and machines also known as information systems.

Note: The meaning assigned to the data must be preserved during these operations.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188

See also

• Communications channel
• Communication
• Constructivism