The highlights of articles evaluating the results of media research over the past 25 years are briefly reviewed, and the constructionists' and the reductionists' approaches to media research are described. It is pointed out that for the researcher in media, the implications of a constructionist approach are quite clear, at least from a…

Noting that the technique of content analysis has become a useful tool for mass communication researchers, this annotated bibliography explains how the field evolved. The annotated bibliography's introduction suggests that: first stage issues (from the 1890s to the mid-1930s) involved efforts by journalists and educators to develop systematic…

This paper contains informal remarks on action research in social psychology from its post World War II origins to its current status. Kurt Lewin first described action research in the 1946 article, "Action Research and Minority Problems," as a three-step process of program planning, program execution, and follow-up evaluation. Ronald Lippitt and…

This paper presents a historical overview of the use of action research in education and describes the basic assumptions and expectations that continue to characterize collaborative research projects today. Action research was initiated in the 1930's by Kurt Lewin and adapted by educators in the 1940's. Interest in action research declined between…

This paper interrelates the conceptual approaches of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu to draw a method to investigate reform in elementary education (ages 6-16) in Iceland in the past 25 years. First is a brief explanation of the conceptual framework of the research that has been conducted on the reform. Identified are three main spectra of…

This description of the scope, legal deposit basis, preparation, and printing of the Singapore National Bibliography since its inception in 1967, provides insight into the searching tasks and editing processes involved in planning a retrospective bibliography, and proposes a chronologically inverted printing scheme for pre-1967 imprints, to be…

This paper examines the tradition of research within the field of educational technology and cites problems endemic to the dominant research methods. It is suggested that a reexamination of the history of the field has intrinsic merit and is necessary at this time; furthermore, historical analysis may assist in the development of new research…

Two pioneering public radio stations--WOSU-AM, licensed to the Ohio State University in Columbus, and WHA-AM, licensed to the University of Wisconsin in Madison--conducted audience research as early as the 1920s. The challenge for early education broadcasters became to adapt the existing audience research paradigm to their purposes, or to develop…

The history of library science in Poland and a number of Polish research projects are reviewed in this paper. It is concluded that a considerable amount of research has been done on the history of libraries in Poland, but that this research is fragmented and separated by its focus on theory or methodology. The methodology of scientific research in…

This paper reviews 35 studies important in the historical development of field dependence, a popular research topic in psychology. The first section involves antecedents of the concept of field dependence, such as the influence of Kurt Lewin. Part two deals with the development of field dependence as an individual differences variable. Part three…

The seeds of mass communication research in broadcasting were extracurricular, not academic, inspired by experimental campus radio stations. Prior to the mid-1930s, radio research was scarce. Until World War II, radio speech was the most important topic, followed by articles on how to use radio for improving instruction. There are three…

"Bosstown Sound" was a slogan used to promote several Boston (Massachusetts) rock bands in 1968. In theory, the Bosstown Sound was a logical development to follow the San Francisco "sound," which included the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, and other Bay Area bands that had been commercially successful in 1967.…

The history of the study of human mental ability is an example of the dialectic in social science between those who interpret data within the framework of existing social inequities and those who look for perspectives that might eventually dissolve inequities. The dedication of Henry Herbert Goddard to a belief in the scientific proof of…

The use of promotional films by the Hampton (Virginia) Normal and Agricultural Institute between 1900 and 1917 is examined in this paper. The paper first traces the problems faced by Hampton and other private southern black schools during the early twentieth century and describes Hampton's extensive promotional efforts designed both to improve…

This paper presents background information about the development and functions of hypertext and predicts future changes in converting text into hypertext. The paper describes hypertext as a computer system that allows the interconnection of information in a way that is "transparent" (does not intrude on or interfere with the reader's…