Focusing on the seminal work "Being and Nothingness," this paper explores the implications of the ideas of Jean-Paul Sartre for the study of communication in society. The paper redefines communication from an existential point of view, explores some implications of this redefinition for the study of communication within the social setting, and reveals distinctions between this view and existing paradigms, including those of communication as cause, as pattern, as process, and as action. (FL)