Examines how college students working across distances used e-mail and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to facilitate their collaboration and decision-making processes. Finds that students came to a decision more quickly using e-mail than with IRC, and when IRC was slow, students reverted to a series of rapid-fire e-mail messages. (RS)

Looks at how intellectuals in the second quarter of the twentieth century responded to the rise of radio broadcasting, recovering some rich ideas about interactivity and intimacy in mass communication. Suggests that radio and television marked the end of mass communication understood as a form of communication that constitutes its audience and…

Argues that Rockefeller Foundation served as an unofficial arm of the state from 1938 to 1944 by mobilizing social-scientific expertise to fight fascism when the Roosevelt Administration was politically unable to do so. Notes that Rockefeller Foundation officer John Marshall's role in the history of American mass communication research and the…

Examines the use of French and Dutch personal and possessive pronouns in the first person plural in internal communication documents. Focuses on the link between text types and the use of inclusive, exclusive, or ambiguous "we." Demonstrates that managers can exploit personal pronouns strategically and that the use of "we" is a…

Analysis of computer-mediated communications of three groups of distance students (17 in a diploma program, 26 in a required course, 13 in an elective) identified the occurrence of 13 supportive online strategies. Most frequently used were referential statements, signatures, greetings, and horizontal questions. High- and low-support groups…

Notes that perceived motives to impression manage in public relations, seen as advocacy behavior, had a main effect on the reputation of public relations among undergraduate students and other non-student adults. Finds public relations to be less well-regarded when its practitioners were seen as acting with overt, intentional behaviors for…

Scrutinizes two years of federal court of appeals school speech rulings in light of two recent Supreme Court decisions applying public forum analysis to determine the limits of government authority over student speech. Finds that appeals courts have not uniformly applied public forum analysis nor have they consistently applied alternative tests.…

Examines direct mailing included in a nationally publicized court case. Articulates how the use of particular genre-based, rhetorical and linguistic strategies in these mailing construct reader identity. Argues that the documents use you-attitude to construct the identity of the reader as winner and to establish the reader's identity as the…

Advances practices for designing, analyzing, and reporting communication research. Focuses on improving researchers' abilities to cumulate results across studies and improving the utility of the individual study. Concludes by summarizing the set of propositions advocated. (SG)

Describes the history of a multi-instrument approach for auditing the communication behavior of organizations. Notes that with the advent of the Internet, limitations of survey research have virtually been eliminated. Outlines four necessary steps involved in a Web-based communication survey. (PM)

Suggests that organizational communication educators should become more conscientious about applying scholarship within academic communities--in the home departments as well as other units within institutions. Argues that educators should become more proactive about helping students to apply what they are learning in the courses. (SG)

Introduces a tool for rethinking the sources of the distinctions between "us" and "them." Considers two approaches to extending the reach of organizational communication research based on this framework. Hopes to move organizational communication concepts into more influential positions in the existing network of practice, and that doing so will…

Explores how domination was created, enacted, and maintained in the acquisition of Ozark Airlines by TWA. Uses the concepts of resources, hegemony, and resistance from the functionalist, Marxist, and postmodern traditions, respectively, to understand power-as-domination as a complex communication process. Reveals how communication practices were…

Presents two studies in which several genre conventions were tested on professional readers to verify the usefulness of applying genre conventions to business proposals. Indicates that applying genre conventions to document structure improved the readers' selection of information. Reveals that readers disapproved of persuasive style shifts, while…

Presents key concepts of chaos theory (CT) as a general framework for describing organizational crisis and crisis communication. Discusses principles of predictability, sensitive dependence on initial conditions, bifurcation as system breakdown, emergent self-organization, and fractals and strange attractors as principles of organization. Explores…