Communication theories that are being tested quantitatively or examined qualitatively from a social science perspective are heavily westernized. The communication studies is a relatively new discipline in the social science discipline. The theories that undergird verbal, non-verbal, interpersonal, intercultural, mass and to a certain extent international communication contexts have largely been informed by theories like magic bullet, uses and gratification, agenda setting, cultivation, cognitive dissonance, propaganda, media effects, spiral of silence theories etc that are rooted in the western world. These theories are void of the non-western experiences from a socio-cultural context. In the age of electronic and digital communication this is what has created a paradigm shift that is constantly in crisis for the communication discipline. Communication students are harvesting these western theories and planting them on the non-western soil that may or may not germinate. That is why we constantly have a crisis in the discipline. One way to resolve this crisis from a cross cultural perspective is to decolonize the theories that are tested and examined in this discipline. This special edition of the Howard Journal of Communications intends to examine this issue through the process of a bottom-up process of decolonizing the western theories. Papers for this edition will expand the field of communication to include theories that include non-western experiences.
