Examines the strength of the effects of happiness and sadness on attitude change, and compares these effects with the effect of anger on attitude change and persuasive message processing. Finds that message strength was positively correlated with attitude, intention and behavior, but was negatively correlated with negative thoughts, and counter…

Examines assumptions underlying the employment of group means in communication research. Suggests a sample mean cannot be assumed to be a "good" statistic when the response vector represents different individuals' outcomes versus different outcomes of an individual. Notes implications for communication research. (SR)

Examines the content, frequency, and pattern of published Internet-based research articles in five leading communication journals to assess how these journals have kept pace with the Internet's influence on the communication process. Finds less than 4% of the 961 articles focused on the Internet, but the total number of Internet-related articles…

Notes that early explications of family communication patterns (FCP) suggested a family's communication pattern arises from interactions in which parents and adolescents influence each other. Revisits the assumption that adolescents influence FCP, using data from a longitudinal quasi-experimental evaluation of a school-based civics curriculum…

Uses 10 months of field research in a high technology start-up to identify six basic narratives types in three main categories deemed essential in founding and governing a new company. Shows how these stories enable founders to justify the existence of the company; convince others to devote funds and other key resources to the company; and make…

Analyzes texts published by ExxonMobil on the issue of climate change, employing both rhetorical analysis and discourse analysis to show their uses and potential value in business communication research. Shows how both reveal the socially constructed nature "reality" and the social effects of language, but are never the less distinct in…

Investigates whether the third-person effect extends to perceptions of other people's television viewing, and whether it can be explained by a general tendency to underrate the education of others. Finds that people tended to perceive others as more inclined toward undesirable viewing behaviors, and that this third-person perception was stronger…

Describes a method for analyzing learning that takes place through dialogue, which requires voice analysis and attention to the connection between speaker and speech and between speech parts and whole. Presents three stages of analysis: limiting the object of discussion, analyzing utterances, and identifying individual self-realization. (SK)

Explores the components of the assimilation stage of Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) socialization, with a specific focus on the relationship between GTA involvement in supportive communication relationships and GTA use of information-seeking strategies. Finds that a correlation exists between GTA involvement in supportive communication…

Describes "Focus," a software tool for collecting reader comments more efficiently. Discusses the design and rationale of the software. Notes that results obtained using Focus were compared to the reader feedback collected under the plus-minus method. Concludes that Focus participants appeared to comment more from a reviewer's and less…

Suggests the "illusion of life" rhetorical perspective increases understanding about how discursive linguistic symbols and non-discursive aesthetic symbols function together to communicate and persuade in didactic music. Argues that lyrics and music work together to offer messages comprised of both conceptual and emotional content…

Considers to what extent perceived risk and self-efficacy interact with each other to determine individuals' motivation to seek health information. Identifies 4 groups of individuals according to their perceived risk and self-efficacy; responsive, proactive, avoidance, and indifference. Attempts to resolve some of the outstanding issues with…

Explores ways in which adults discuss literature in two different settings--a graduate English seminar and a graduate English education book club course. Examines the role of speaker turns, tentative and presentational language, overlapping talk and questioning in those literature discussions. Explores the different theoretical and pedagogical…

Analyzes mid-life professional women's experiences of growing older at work. Notes that women do not simply reproduce the decline narrative (experiencing and articulating growing older in terms of loss, isolation, and diminished material resources)--they also offer resistant stories. Highlights implications for theory and practice, and suggests…

Focuses on the relationship of three student predispositions to their expectations for instructor communication behavior. Examines students' communication apprehension, grade and learning orientation, and humor orientation in relation to students' expectations for teachers' use of verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors, clarity behaviors, and…