Surveys members of the Sierra Club to examine the link between two theories of public relations: a situational theory of publics; and an organizational theory of the relationship between environments and the public relations behavior of organizations. Reports that findings support the situational theory of publics. (MM)

Argues that the new information-processing paradigm must find suitable ways to link individual-level information processing to the higher-level processes of public communication and social organization. Suggests that social identification theory may offer a useful approach to multilevel research. (MS)

Proposes that cultural and role variables within organizations will predict the extent to which individuals hold a collective or individualistic approach to organizational life. Finds that effects of participation and allocation on organizational participants is moderated by the culture of the organization and the roles individuals play within the…

Evaluates reactions of students exposed to a video presentation with or without a laugh track. Finds those in the laugh track group exhibited significantly more mirth behavior, but did not evaluate the stimulus as significantly funnier. (MS)

Describes the contingent media relations policy employed by Rockwell International, the prime contractor for the United States space shuttle program, following the January 28, 1986, destruction of the Challenger. Analyzes Rockwell's response through a theoretical model of crisis perception and Rockwell's policy in relation to the mass media. (MS)

Finds that lower teaching assistant (TA) argumentativeness is positively associated with student affective learning and vice versa and that lower TA argumentativeness is associated with higher levels of power use and vice versa. Suggests that, although high argumentative TAs may be "social specialists" in power use, their high levels of…

Investigates how institutions argue about the idea of public good. Studies how institutions rely on the Contingent Valuation Method (to determine the worth of despoiled environmental resources) to argue that critical-public argumentation theory benefits from critique that reveals how institutional arguments structurally foreclose the ability of…

Discusses replication factors for communication experiments. Gives research findings regarding the treatment of sampled replications as fixed effects. Considers objections to treating replications as random. Suggests the empowerment of studies through modest increases in the number of replications. (HB)

Documents and criticizes the idealism and relativism of the materiality of discourse idea in postmodernist and post-Marxist rhetorical theories. Illustrates the critique with an extended critical analysis of Persian Gulf War news coverage, and defends materialist ideology criticism as an alternative to a critical rhetoric that has become…

Argues that rhetorical critics advance moral arguments; the evidence for moral arguments should be subjected to close scrutiny; critics write from their own sense of interests and ideology; critics are subject to standards of their field and their community; a critical epistemology shapes standards of the human communication field; and subjecting…

Predicts the presence or absence of parent-adolescent conflict patterns across early, middle, and late adolescence. Strengthens the proposition that phases of adolescence represent successive and progressive differences in adolescent development which alter and eventually improve interaction during day-to-day parent-adolescent conflict. (SR)

Explores the multiple and heterogeneous deployment of the Other within discourses that intersect and contest each other. Shows how the 19th century discourse of "le femme orientale," which informed the Romantic critique of capitalism, was recuperated in a hegemonic manner to promote an expanding consumer culture. Discusses the colonial…

Finds that people characterizing themselves in more balanced terms were rated as more likeable, honest, and authentic then either self-deprecators or self-enhancers, and were viewed as having significantly more self-knowledge than self-deprecating individuals. Indicates that self-deprecators and self-enhancers are disliked for somewhat different…

Examines public housing as a dynamic communication environment. Explores the role of communication in the construction of public perceptions and community identity as it functions in this highly stigma-laden locale. Examines the process of socially constructed meaning for insiders and outsiders within the context of this unique and problem-ridden…

Reviews research trends over the history of computer-mediated communication media with observations suggested so as to provide integrative principles with which to apply media to different circumstances. Comments on newer theories that explain normative use of "interpersonal" uses of the media. Infers strategies for the intentional…