The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's museums. Museums for America (MFA) is the largest IMLS grant program for museums; it supports institutions by investing in high-priority, high-value activities that are clearly linked to the institution's strategic plan and enhance its value to…

Unlike students in traditional classrooms, the interpretive visitor has voluntarily approached the site and is usually looking for interesting entertainment. Meeting the challenge of satisfying both the visitor and the sponsoring agency requires an understanding of the audience and its interests and motivations. A social-marketing approach to…

This research examines heterogeneity in Americans' musical tastes by separating breadth and level of taste, taking into account the structural constraints such as cohort, period, social class, gender and racial composition, which have shaped Americans' musical preferences over the past 20 years. We identify four types of respondents who share…

Teaching rhetorical production in a digital age calls for us to rethink our discipline's current distaste for writing mechanics. Yet, the digital mechanics of writing are much broader than grammatical concerns. They include production tools that allow for the invention and circulation of audio, visual, and Multigenre writing. (Contains 3 figures…

The purpose of this article was to explore the music festival as a music educational project by means of results drawn from a case study investigating one particular festival's impact on identity development, both for the individual member of the audience (musical identity) and for the local society (local identity). The theoretical framework was…

Contends that Martin Allor ("Relocating the Site of the Audience," same issue) ignores, misunderstands, or misrepresents the "dominant" social science tradition in audience studies. Focuses on the contributions of critical approaches to the study of media audiences. (MS)

Responds to Martin Allor's "Relocating the Site of the Audience" (same issue). Suggests that the audience precedes the text. (MS)

Investigates the effects of targeted sales messages on newspaper subscription sales and retention by combining two large research projects--a demographic market segmentation scheme, and a readership-lifestyle survey. Proposes that the content of sales messages influences new subscriptions but does not affect retention. (MM)

All of the admissions research says that prospective students and their parents want to know something about the mysterious people who do the professing. They want to ask questions in a public forum; they want to visit classes; they want private meetings with department chairs; and they want admissions people to call them on the phone to explain…

Examines self-portrayal in fictional and nonfictional written discourse. Argues that two common terms for describing self-representation--ethos and persona--are often conflated but that there are good historical and conceptual grounds for maintaining a distinction between them. (MS)

Examines Chaim Perelman's new rhetoric, concluding that Perelman believes a rhetor linguistically creates a presence by first analyzing how the audience thinks and acts, referring to what the audience holds to be true, and then entering into communion with the audience by expressing the thoughts of the audience. (RAE)

Points out that Martin Allor ("Relocating the Site of the Audience," same issue) sets aside three relevant interdisciplinary matters: (1) the historical development of certain of the areas of theoretical work examined; (2) the choice of theoretical terms; and (3) the ongoing discursive/nondiscursive debate with respect to the material…

Points out that formalization of cognitive grammar is difficult to achieve within the present formulation of the grammar. Introduces a modification that will allow modeling the process of similarity. Suggests using analogical modeling. Indicates some consequences of the proposition for the practice of communication. (PA)

Examines the discursive construction of audience identity at a public radio station in New Mexico by investigating listener letters printed in the radio station's newsletter. Shows how the letters frame the audience in particular ways. Discusses listener letters as an ongoing text, and spatial discourse as metacommunication. (SR)

This study investigated what kind of supportive information can be effective in improving the situation where there were severe motivational challenges. Motivational and volitional email messages (MVEM) were constructed based on an integrated model of four theories and methods, which are Keller's ARCS model, Kuhl's action control theory,…