Finds that (1) U.S. listeners assigned more favorable assessment to U.S. than non-U.S.-accented speakers but that information recall was not affected; and (2) status affected recall, with subjects recalling more information from messages delivered by professors than by students. (SR)

Proposes a new field called polycultural organizational communication, which would encompass theorizing and research involving organizations in both international and domestic settings in which cultural differences operate (multicultural settings). Delineates the need for the field, its potential contributions in theory and practice, and issues to…

Urges construction of a new analytical framework for communications policy researchers which explicitly weighs quantifiable economic efficiency criteria alongside nonquantifiable social values. Discusses market economics versus social value, the economics of idea production and distribution, an expanded policy framework, the role of the first…

Suggests that claims about cognition can be made at four levels--biological, implementation, algorithmic, and rational--but that theoretical claims about conversational cognition can most usefully be pursued at the rational and algorithmic levels. Proposes criteria and reviews promising methods for studying conversational cognition, in an effort…

Examines how interacting with a friend as opposed to a stranger in anticipation of a stressful event (giving an extemporaneous speech) affects college students' coping. Finds that subjects perceived more social support after interacting with a friend than with a stranger. Describes specific verbal and nonverbal behaviors contributing to successful…

Examines several qualitative features of the friendship circles of lonely college students. Finds that some communicative attributes of the friendship circle predicted participants' levels of social acceptance and loneliness. (SR)

Employs time series analysis to model individual and discursive influences on the response latencies of deceivers and truthtellers. Shows that a decay impulse model provides a good description of the data. Finds that message veracity and self-monitoring combined to affect the fit of the decay impulse model. (SR)

Posits a critical approach to the study of contemporary social controversy. Examines objectives to the use of fur as oppositional argument, rhetoric that veers from the goal of persuasion to block conventional associations and refashion communication norms. Shows how pro-fur responses illustrate strategies available to bolster, alter, or abandon…

Discusses seven major debates on journalism that typify the Chinese journalism reform's ideological and operational dilemmas. Maintains that these debates have opened up Chinese journalists to alternatives and contributed to the development of journalism in China since reform was launched in 1979. (SR)

Argues that organizations routinely engage in values advocacy (the appeal to shared cultural values) to perform three distinct functions: (1) to enhance the organization's image; (2) to deflect criticism of the organization and/or its policies, products, and services; and (3) to establish value premises that can be used in later discourse. (SR)

Focuses on how college and university reputations are built and may decay. Explores attributes of organizational reputation. Explores differential aspects of history in the formation of enduring and situational perceptions of organizational reputation, as well as differential effects of communication modes for reaching target publics. Identifies…

Explores cognitive and emotional mechanisms underlying success and failure of fear appeals in context of AIDS prevention. Offers general support for Extended Parallel Process Model. Suggests that cognitions lead to fear appeal success (attitude, intention, or behavior changes) via danger control processes, whereas the emotion fear leads to fear…

Reports on five studies on the development, conceptual validation, and behavioral validation of the Normative Message Processing Scale (NMPS). Compares the conceptual and predictive validity of the NMPS to related trait information-processing instruments. Argues for the need to develop an instrument that distinguishes between the tendency to…

Describes research on the rhetoric of mine disasters, analyzing discourse among government agencies, Congress, unions, operators, and lobbyists. Offers rhetorical, technical, and ethical analyses of the technical documents resulting from mine disasters. (SR)

Finds that more argument and less verbal aggression were observed in constructive as compared to destructive disagreements regardless of context; more verbal aggression was reported in family as compared to organizational disagreements; and participants, when compared to observers, perceived the most argument and verbal aggression. (SR)