Investigates the argumentation advanced in briefs, oral arguments, and the Supreme Court's opinion in the case of Miranda versus Arizona. Considers the background of the case, analyzes the argumentation and its influences on the court, and stresses the importance of viewing the Supreme Court as an active participant in the decision-making process.…

Explores the role of culture in shaping interpersonal interactions. Investigates the effect of group identity on subjects' levels of attributional confidence, their individuation of group members, and ultimately their interpersonal-interaction strategies. Discovers that the perceived homogeneity of group values eases intragroup interaction. (PRA)

Argues that interpretation is not only an essential mode for understanding the construction of rhetorical texts, but that interpretation is itself an important source of invention and, therefore, of social critique in postmodern culture. (KEH)

Examines the natural language descriptions employed by American high school adolescents in talking about the kinds of communication events they experience in everyday life. Finds that adolescents describe communication events through use of setting, participant, speech act, and purpose marker terms. Differentiates nine basic clusters of…

Presents the results of a survey assessing the state-of-the-art of graduate teaching assistant training. Indicates that speech communication departments are leading the way in the proportion that train but not in the breadth or scope of that training. (SR)

Investigates the relationship between teacher immediacy and student state motivation and the combined impact of these factors on learning. Reveals significant relationships between learning and both immediacy and motivation--immediacy appears to modify motivation which leads to increased learning. (SR)

Describes the context of the Valdez disaster in terms of an organizational crisis. Discusses the nature of scientific argument and the norms of scientific ethos as they represent an appropriate standard for measuring the ethics of profit-seeking organizations during times of crisis. (NH)

Comments on some recent debates in audience studies. Argues that much active audience theory is in fact premised on a heavily negotiated reading (if not a misreading) of some of the earlier work that is often invoked as its theoretical basis. (SR)

Discusses several weak spots in critical communication research. Argues that critical communication scholars should privilege journalism, engage in activism, and incorporate capitalism into the heart of their calculations. (SR)

Surveys American public relations practitioners and finds that the majority of those surveyed said that their practices were not yet affected by globalization. Notes a strong perception that the impact will be realized in the future. Finds also a perceived need to develop a better understanding of the international marketplace and to upgrade…

Shows that content analysis performed on a database of newspaper stories yielded (in unpredictable ways) results different from the hand search. Cautions researchers to be careful when comparing content-analysis research results of online searches to hand searches, noting that all databases do not provide the same access to information. (SR)

Explores video viewing and the emerging home entertainment culture, focusing on the attitudes of the audience toward the medium and how well the medium meets audience expectations. Finds these attitudes significant in predicting types of videocassette recording use. (SR)

Outlines five competing ideas about how the literal meanings of sentences can be determined. Studies people's intuitive sense of the literal meanings of sentences. Examines through two experiments people's judgments about the literality of sentences containing figurative language. Discusses implications of findings. (HB)

Discusses the problem of "overlap" sometimes experienced by interdisciplinary teams. Analyzes a brief segment of a team conversation in which overlap is discussed. Reveals participants' territoriality in the face of an ideology of interdisciplinary collaboration. (HB)

Discusses bilingualism in written cuneiform texts from ancient Babylonia and Sumeria. Describes the development of formats and techniques that enabled two or more languages on a single document to coexist harmoniously and productively. (SR)