Discusses how the field of public relations has left itself vulnerable to other fields that are making inroads into public relations' traditional domain, and to critics who are filling in their own definitions of public relations. Proposes a definition and a three-dimensional framework to compare competing philosophies of public relations and to…

Investigates the complexities of reading books that use more than one sign system. Presents a theory of text/picture relations based on "transmediation." Provides an overview of the various ways in which the relationship between the words and pictures in a picture book has been conceptualized. Draws on several theoretical traditions and…

Contends that Bernardo Bertolucci's films engage in a persistent critique of the essentialist subject; states that he focuses on the lasting effects of a tumultuous early fusion between a preverbal child and an "archaic" mother, associated in part with instinctual, prelinguistic rhythms disruptive of meaning. Discusses several of…

Adds to scholarship on the role of ideology in Kenneth Burke's texts, and its implications for rhetorical criticism. Argues that, in "Permanence and Change," Burke develops a "metabiological" theory of ideology based upon interrelated concepts of "metabiology,""orientation," and "recalcitrance."…

Explores the argumentation of critical rhetoric as a millennial appeal, a rhetorical device aimed at establishing a new world with subsequent need for a new critical orientation. Argues that the advocates of critical rhetoric characteristically use dissociation as their primary rhetorical strategy. Concludes that M. Bakhtin's concept of…

Places a postmodern perspective on the issue of the affective domain by taking text from one line of a Charles Dickens novel, "The Cricket on the Hearth," and reinterpreting it in eight different ways to show different personal relevances, alternative motivations, and a non-linear system. (Author/LRW)

Suggests that rhetorical critics should avoid affirming the constancy hypothesis, the belief that a stimulus contains the response. Examines five examples of affirmation of the constancy hypothesis in rhetorical criticism after foregrounding Burke's avoidance of the constancy hypothesis in "Permanance and Change" as a model for…

Expressed emotion measures, encompassing dimensions of criticism (CRIT), and emotional over-involvement (EOI) are increasingly being used to assess the parent-child relationship in child clinical populations, despite the lack of studies assessing their validity. We examined the correspondence between CRIT, EOI, and parent-child interactions as…

Self-report, other-report, clinical interview, and behavioral observations of evaluative maternal feedback (e.g., positive feedback, criticism), adolescent depressive symptoms, and self-perceived competence were obtained from 72 adolescents and their mothers. Most path analyses supported the hypothesis that adolescent self-perceived competence…

Timothy Shanahan was surprised to learn that Elaine Garan and Steven Krashen had written yet two more critiques of the National Reading Panel (NRP) report. Each already has more NRP-related publications than any member of the panel, and both have been issuing their complaints over a longer period than the panel worked on the eight studies that…

Based on research conducted over seven years by the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project (YMSP), this article offers an overview of the perspectives that have informed the Project's contemplative approach to congregational youth ministry. It begins by examining the context of YMSP through a critical analysis of two other predominant emphases in…

Some proponents of Africanism argue that African traditional education and the principles of "ubuntu" should provide the framework for citizenship education. While conceding that understandable concerns lie behind defences of "ubuntu" as underpinning African democracy, we argue that the Africanist perspective faces various problems and makes…

In this paper, I explore the insights suggested by Michele Borrelli's 'The Utopianisation of Critique' in the context of a real-life educational encounter that involves an attempt at being critical. Borrelli's observation that all positive utopian critique implies an inevitable degree of dogmatism takes on a new - and less depressing -…

The present study addresses the need for teachers to critically evaluate the credibility, validity, and cognitive load associated with scientific information on Web sites, in order to effectively teach students to evaluate scientific information on the World Wide Web. A line of prior research investigating high school and university students'…

Slavin's call for evidence-based research on the effectiveness of treatments is criticized for its unreflective concept of a "treatment." It is argued that treatments cannot be defined objectively but only relative to the beliefs, goals, and intentions of those supposedly affected by the treatments. An alternative approach to the study of…