Communication studies is a branch of academic research that investigates the process of human communication. This includes the production, transmission, and reception of verbal and nonverbal messages. At their most fundamental level, communication studies are concerned with how meaning is generated in interpersonal, private, public, and mass communication contexts. These concerns cut across socioeconomic, political, and cultural contexts. It is a multidisciplinary field of study that combines several related areas, such as scientific communication, interpersonal communication, gender studies, political communication, multicultural communication, scientific communication, and intercultural communication.