A sample of 118 U.S. 6th and 7th graders was used to examine early adolescents' views of whether video games negatively influence themselves, others of the same age, and younger others. Six specific games ranging in rating from E for Everyone to M for Mature were listed for the early adolescents to respond to, with questions asked about both…

Although research suggests that manifestations of blatant racism are on the decline, findings additionally demonstrate that subtle racism remains prevalent when contexts provide sufficient ambiguity for the expressions to go unnoticed. Notably, studies examining these outcomes have typically been confined to intergroup contexts, despite the fact…

Between March 2009 and March 2011, Talk To Your Baby has been engaged in a research project, under the title of Face to Face, to identify key messages for parents and carers in relation to communicating with babies and young children, and has examined the most effective ways to promote these messages to parents and carers. The Face to Face project…

Colleges and universities have come to recognize that creating smaller learning communities is a useful strategy for engaging undergraduate students. Learning communities can provide students with a sense of identity and with connections to faculty, the institution, and knowledge. Despite their popularity, there is little empirical research that…

While not presuming to present a model of organizational socialization that is complete and totally accurate, this paper examines organizational socialization in a new way through the lenses of symbolic interactionism and culture theory. The first section of the paper describes the basic tenets of symbolic interactionism and how these have been…

Reports three studies suggesting that speech rate perception is influenced by vocal frequency and, to some extent, by intensity, and that these relationships are not materially altered by the speakers' gender. (JAD)

Employs Kenneth Burke's sociological criticism to study the discourse of the 1984 nominating conventions. Finds that the parties organized narratives that followed distinct assessments of political reality as the Democrats told a story following a "fear and fairness" theme, while the Republicans relied on a "prosperity and…

Contends that the trouble with communication research is fragmentation and too much low-quality and very little high-quality work. (PD)

Reviews the development of communication research in Hungary in the 1970s and the priorities for the 1980s. (PD)

Investigates significance of the index in the process of mapping and formatting sites, spaces, and words on the Internet as well as diagnosing, tracking, and soliciting users. Argues that indexical technologies are increasingly called upon by commercial interests to automate the solicitation process whereby entry into an Internet site triggers the…

Argues that in interpreting interaction, individuals focus on one dimension or another. Hypothesizes that the salience of dominance or affiliation is a function of the goal-defined context; involvement is also essential in studying relational communication. Rates the relevance of a series of word pairs that operationalized dominance, affiliation,…

Examines on-air television and radio newscasters' traitlike communication dispositions. Finds that television and radio personalities were less apprehensive, less shy, less responsive, more assertive, and more extroverted than the average individual. Indicates that higher-paid personalities were more willing to communicate than their lesser-paid…

Determines the characteristics of interactions that influence judgments of interruption behavior in naive observers. Asks subjects to decide whether an example of an interruption was an interruption and then rate it in terms of how "good" or "bad" it was. Finds that naive observers use some of the same features described in…

Finds that competent communicators (high assertive, high responsive) communicated from needs for affection, pleasure, and inclusion more than noncompetent (low assertive, low responsive), submissive (low assertive, high responsive), and aggressive (high assertive, low responsive) individuals. Shows that aggressive types communicated more from…

Investigates the degree to which assertiveness and responsiveness predict the use/nonuse of affinity-seeking strategies in the context of relational repair. Finds that how participants perceived themselves and how they perceived others in terms of both assertiveness and responsiveness predicted the types of strategies used and not used. (SR)