Finds that temporal markers modify the availability of preceding words: segmentation markers like "around two o'clock" and "then" reduce this availability, whereas continuity markers like "and" improve this availability. Supports the hypothesis that segmentation markers lead readers not to integrate new information…

Suggests a relationship between organizational crisis experience and the placement of the public relations function. Notes a relationship between organization size and crisis experience. Uncovers an alarming absence of crisis planning and training in organizations. (SR)

Develops, based on social exchange theory, a typology of six strategies for exchanging information. Finds that unsolicited information-receiving is positively related to job satisfaction and organizational knowledge, in addition to being negatively related to intention to quit, and that information-giving through modeling is also negatively…

Argues that Kenneth Burke made advances in adapting two of Freud's processes of identification for the analysis of public communication, but that Burke's reading of Freud on identification in groups submerges important conceptual aspects. Discusses the consequences to rhetorical criticism (and to those studying small group ties within…

Uses an information-processing perspective to illustrate how television viewing may affect social judgements. Posits heuristic processing as a mechanism that can explain why heavier television viewing results in higher first-order cultivation judgments (those requiring estimates of set size). (SR)

Finds no liberal news bias in the selection of sound bites by the candidates themselves. Notes that almost half the sound bite time was devoted to noncandidates and produced results consistent with a hypothesis of liberal news bias. Finds that the Bush-Quayle ticket received a substantially higher percentage of negative bites than did the other…

Finds that the presence of more newspapers in a county leads to closer election outcomes in races for the United States Senate and for governor, with the effect somewhat stronger in Senate races than in gubernatorial contests, and stronger still in open-seat campaigns, compared to those in which incumbents seek reelection. (SR)

Examines all the refereed papers accepted to journalism and mass communication conventions from 1987 to 1993. Finds that women are out-producing men on a per capita basis, with women (who constitute 28% of the organization's membership) producing nearly half of the refereed convention research. (SR)

Proposes four defining conditions for undoable phenomena and applies them to power, examining the foundation of its inevitability and looking for a lever to unhinge its constructions. Suggests, with four procedural steps, how power may be contested, rearticulated, and undone. Explains the distinction between power and force, and demonstrates the…

Discusses categories of document testing, importance of reader-based testing, measures in usability testing, and issues in implementing document testing. (SR)

Reports on an ethnographic study of part-time teller assimilation in a large branch banking organization. States that although strict adherence to rules was advocated, there were contradictions between policy and reality that were never resolved. Finds that contradictory assimilation messages interfered with newcomers' developing feelings of…

Shows that communication and social psychology research in the past 100 years have identified 2 different aspects of reality evaluation. Outlines the critical elements to form a theory of media reality effects. Extends that theory to include virtual reality, and shows how virtual reality will be an important tool for investigating these effects.…

Suggests that virtual reality might be a useful tool for managing large amounts of multimedia information. Calls this spatial phenomenon "cognitive space" and maintains that communication researchers are uniquely qualified to pursue this avenue. (SR)

Describes an empirical exploration of the instructional potential of virtual reality as an interface for simulation-based training. Shows that subjects learned spatial-procedural and spatial-navigational skills in virtual reality. (SR)

Argues that strategically ambiguous messages play a key role in the birth of loosely coupled organizations and that the successful birth is contingent on these messages being interpreted differently by key constituencies in the organization's environment. Presents a case study of the creation of a new interdisciplinary research center at a major…