States M.L. Mares presents evidence that source confusions play a role in the cultivation effect. Clarifies some of Mares' findings that have implications for the heuristic model of cultivation effects and shows that Mares' findings are compatible with and can be integrated into the heuristic processing model. Discusses implications of Mares'…

Describes several "inaccurate" statements made in L. Thomas' and T. Levine's article in this journal (volume 21, page 103) regarding the current author's research and positions on the listening construct. Suggests that Thomas' and Levine's model has serious methodological flaws. (RS)

Presents comments about R. Bostrom's article in this journal. Suggests that Bostrom missed the point of Thomas' and Levine's original article. (RS)

Argues that generalizing to message populations by treating messages as a random variable is inappropriate for complex messages, and proposes meta-analytic techniques for investigating biases in message samples and other methodological factors that can limit generalizability of communication research. (MS)