Confirms the multidimensionality of the listening process identified in previous research via the establishment of five listening dimensions. Notes that cognitive, affective, behavioral/verbal, behavioral/nonverbal, and behavioral/interactive dimensions provide a conceptually meaningful framework for explicating the listening process. Discusses…

Responds to Robert Entman's call for the establishment of a paradigm of news framing research. Describes a research program which includes three paradigmatic outlooks, called cognitive, constructivist, and critical. Argues that the research program has benefited the communication discipline by encouraging researchers to use specific theories to…

Identifies the noncontact rate and refusals rate for a survey conducted by an electronic telephone survey device. Finds the noncontact rate for the electronic survey similar to other telephone surveys. Finds that rejection of a computer-administered telephone survey has an effect on the refusal rate. (RS)

Identifies metacommunication strategies with which preschool children negotiate meanings during dramatic play. Finds behaviors ranging from those which overtly expose the play frame to those which operate within the play frame. Proposes a system of implicit rules, indigenous to the child culture, which guide choice of strategy. (SR)

Describes a study in which 24 subjects received 1 of 4 prose excerpts, each labeled as fiction or nonfiction and manipulated to refer to a familiar or unfamiliar social group. Concludes that the impact on readers' beliefs of fiction messages about unfamiliar peoples may equal or exceed that of nonfiction messages. (SG)

Seeks to determine the effect of argumentativeness and verbal aggression on the image of participants in the CBS news interview of George Bush by Dan Rather. Finds that both concepts have a significant relationship to communicator image. Reports that verbal aggressiveness negatively affected Bush's image but positively influenced Rather's. (MG)

Examines the effectiveness of direct mail communication strategies--inoculation (a strategy which promotes resistance to attitude and behavior change), inoculation-plus-reinforcement, and refutation messages--in combating the persuasiveness of political attack messages. Finds that inoculation is more effective than the refutation approach in…

Calls into question the assumption that family members share a common view of communication norms which underlies the widely used Family Communication Patterns (FCP) instrument. Presents empirical evidence of systematic intrafamilial disagreement on communication norms. (SR)

Presents a "Cognitive Rules" model which specifies assumptions about the structures and processes underlying goal formation. Reports on experimental testing of the model's assumptions. Finds that a priming manipulation influences interaction goals in attributionally ambiguous but not in attributionally clear compliance-gaining…

Analyses concepts from speech act theory to clarify the most effective use of first and second person pronouns in two types of structures frequently found in professional communication: commissives and directives. (KEH)

Investigates the degree of support among administrators of mass communication programs for academic research among their faculty. Finds that programs without graduate degrees still expect faculty to do research but may support it less than programs which offer graduate work. (RS)

Analyzes evaluation methods used by winners of the Silver Anvil (an award presented by the Public Relations Society of America for outstanding public relations campaigns and programs) during the 1980s. Concludes that the quality of evaluation activity is far lower than the quantity of evaluation but that practitioners' efforts to substantiate…

Investigates whether social perceivers who have been trained to detect deception from behavioral cues are more accurate in judging social actors' veracity than untrained social perceivers. Finds that such training enhances social perceivers' detection deception accuracy, particularly for males judging trained communicator/deceivers. (SR)

Asserts that earlier investigations of the organizational communication failures that led to the space shuttle Challenger explosion asked the wrong question. Notes an erroneous focus on why the shuttle was launched despite widespread knowledge of technical problems. Concludes that sociology of technology and new rhetoricians can help form better…

Argues that the intercultural communication field evolved from research performed at the United States Department of State's Foreign Service Institute between 1946 and 1956. Notes that the work of the Institute's linguists and anthropologists triggered research on nonverbal communication in social interaction. Argues that an understanding of…