• There is a third paradigm of science, commonly referred to as complexity science.
• It provides analytic methods that will facilitate the study dynamic and interactive communication processes.
• Though the complexity science paradigm is not well-known to communication scientists, it has facilitated important
discoveries in most other branches of science.
• The complexity paradigm focuses on how simple rules (e.g., basic laws of evolution) generate highly complex-appearing
systems (e.g., all life on Earth).
• The characteristics of communicative interaction processes are a strong fit with criteria for complex systems.
• Communicative interaction can be modeled and tested using a computer simulation.
• Complexity will require researchers to integrate existing knowledge into a very different paradigm, slowing
broad-based adoption in the field