The idea that mass communication effects may decrease diversity among people or societies exposed to it arises constantly. However, discussions of mass media effects do not highlight differences between mass communications that "affect" people uniformly and messages that members of audiences "respond to" in similar ways. A…

A more flexible definition of literacy combines oral literacy, which focuses on the concrete, with written literacy, which is abstract. For W. Ong, F. DeAngelo, A. R. Luria, and others who have done research on oral and written cultures, their central concern is one of defining and describing the kind and form of consciousness that is represented…

The nature of gazing at someone or something, as a form of communication among the Bahemba people in eastern Zaire, is analyzed across a range of situations. Variations of steady gazing, a common eye contact routine, are outlined, including: (1) negative non-gazing or glance routines, especially in situations in which gazing would ordinarily…

Designed for use as supplementary instructional material in a cultural anthropology course this learning module introduces the student to some of the major trends associated with agriculture and its impact upon cultural evolution and complexity. The first section of the module describes major innovations such as animal power, irrigation and the…

Investigating complaints that newspaper reports about Hispanic Americans or Hispanic issues are biased, a study examined the daily newspaper coverage of Hispanics and Hispanic issues by the "Albuquerque Journal" (New Mexico) and the "San Antonio Express" (Texas). Three constructed-year samples, for 1982, 1984, and 1986, were…

Latin elements or themes made for the North American market have been used in American films, but at the same time these films have been playing in a Latin American market, making it useful to examine how Latin America has been portrayed in these films. The taste for exotic locales and themes is an element that has been present since the…

Shirley Brice Heath's "Ways With Words," which deals with cultural differences and shows ways to negotiate a translation of culture, can be used to formulate a pedagogy which alerts students to cultural differences and encourages students to fit their own culturally inherited logical structures and personal styles into a rhetoric which…

In composition studies, the most influential statement of what Brian Street calls the autonomous model of literacy is the work of Walter Ong. Ong bases the foundation of this model on the research on cognitive development done by Alexander Luria, a student of Lev Vygotsky. Ong finds in this research, carried out among the Islamic people of…

It is necessary to understand the absence of women from the history of rhetoric in ways that shape an astute appreciation of women's silence and guide meaningful intellectual or critical conduct. Two ways to do this are to understand the absence either as the consequence of a virulent and systematic exclusion or as a regrettable omission. The…

Exploring the relationship of communication apprehension (CA) to culture, age, and gender, a study examined 368 United States mainland children (186 males and 182 females, ages 5-11, in a public elementary school in Bowling Green, Kentucky) and 373 Puerto Rican children (172 males and 201 females from public elementary schools in the Gurabo school…

Focusing on the process of performing instructional development in the international arena, this chapter discusses how to become involved in international projects, organizations sponsoring such work, and special problems commonly encountered in international consulting. Pointers on how to prepare are given, as well as communication and cultural…

Fantasy theme analysis (as propounded by Ernest Bormann) has tremendous potential as a tool for investigation of popular music as a rhetorical transaction--specifically, popular music as mimetic discourse. The early tradition of the rhetoric of music focuses on music as a persuasive medium, deriving rhetorical value from the way discourse affects…

The result of a conference bringing historians and educators together with government officials to learn about current literacy research and to discuss research needs, this book presents eight conference papers. Topics covered include (1) the spread of literacy, (2) the impact of the printing press on current attitudes toward literacy, (3) the…

For the past five years it has been an ongoing programmatic concern at the University of Pittsburgh to provide a location in the graduate curriculum for discussion of professional and pedagogical issues that relate directly to the teaching, writing, and research projects of the teaching assistants and teaching fellows. The program was constituted…

A compilation of lectures and presentations from Nordic and international conferences, symposia, and seminars, as well as informal contributions to debates, this booklet was published originally as a 1987 greeting by the Danish National Association of Reading Teachers. Topics covered in an often humorous presentation include reading, reading…