In an attempt to transform a skills-based graduate course into a theory-driven multimedia storytelling course, a first-year assistant professor encounters diverse obstacles that upend their initial pedagogical intentions. This evocative autoethnography explores the course instructor's experiences as they deal with issues of decreasing student…

This study explores how introductory news writing textbooks address issues surrounding emotional labor and its consequences, both for journalists and for those they interview. Eighteen of the highest-selling introductory news-writing textbooks were selected for qualitative analysis. Results showed the term and concept of emotional labor--the…

Survey data on mass communication students' perceptions of plagiarism and fabrication indicate an ethics gap in which students are more concerned about ethical breaches in journalism than in academics. Further analyses found that the ethics gap increases among students near graduation who had higher levels of concern and suggested harsher…

Discusses the need for the development of specific instructional practices to teach relevant concepts and issues on communication in the family setting. Provides guidelines for an exercise using E. Goffman's concepts of markers and tie-in signs to determine, observationally yet unobtrusively, whether individuals in public places have a familial…

Describes a public service campaign developed as a class project for students in television and radio broadcasting to provide a realistic work experience. (JMF)

Indicates that students were favorably impressed with their videodisc learning experience, though the process of reaching consensus seemed to require the re-ordering of individual rankings. Discusses the relationships between design strategy, student interaction in the learning process, and funding educational technology. (JD)

Provides a brief, nontechnical overview of latent trait models and argues for the preferability of these models (particularly the Rasch logistic model) over classical test models. Offers an example application of the Rasch model and discusses implications for the use of latent trait models for communication educators. (AEW)

Surveyed different departments that offer undergraduate degrees in radio-television-film. Compared (1) philosophies; (2) semester hours offered and required in radio-television-film; (3) faculty qualifications; (4) dollars invested in equipment and training facilities; and (5) student enrollment degree data. Departments included broadcasting,…

Reports results of a survey on what practicing communication specialists do as well as what they perceive to be important skills for future communication specialists. Respondents' job descriptions indicate two types of communication specialists: journalists and trainers. Implications for academic preparation for each are included. (JMF)

Investigates whether entry-level, college-educated broadcast employees have job expectations that broadcast managers do not understand. Indicates that students' desire for rapid professional advancement has increased between 1979 and 1980. Revealed that managers accurately perceived the rank order students assigned to the 20 outcomes, but…

Discusses the changing job requirements and educational needs of future communication specialists and presents a model curriculum from Behrend College of the Pennsylvania State University at Erie. (PD)