Testing Craig’s Metamodel: Shifting from Classification to Dimensional Analysis

Abstract

This paper looks at the Craig’s seven traditions, their influence on the field of communication theories and the shortcomings of Craig’s metatheory. This paper mainly answers six questions: why communication theory needs a metatheory? How many metatheories have been developed so far? What are the Craig’s seven traditions of communication? What did Craig accomplish by developing this metamodel? Why Craig’s metatheory failed to achieve its desired goals? And what is the future of Craig’s seven traditions? First part of the paper answers the first four questions and the second part of the paper answers the fifth question by engaging the grammar of Craig’s model and challenging it by exploring conflict theories that do not fit into Craig’s seven traditions. The third part of this paper identifies future challenges for the Craig’s seven traditions in the light of the conflict theories to provide a solution for those challenges.