Applying knowledge of myth to the milieu of commercial television programming, this paper focuses on the way myth was generated in an advertising campaign that featured Lee Iacocca, chief executive officer of Chrysler Corporation, during the period of 1979-1982, when Chrysler moved from the edge of bankruptcy to financial stability. After…

It has been said that the contribution of Franz Rosenzweig and Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy to the social sciences is their understanding of speech and time. Rosenstock-Huessy criticized modern communication theory because it assumes that one communicates to express thought, claiming instead that because speech necessitates the presence of a listener,…

A study attempted to determine dimensions of maternal adaptation of language to the level of their young children's speech, and whether patterns of maternal adaptation can be described as interactive maternal styles. Links were sought between aspects of maternal language adaptation and child language level. Participating were 6 mother-child dyads…

A rhetorical analysis of the 1984 vice-presidential debate between George Bush and Geraldine Ferraro was conducted to determine argumentation tactics, argumentation flaws, reasoning strategies, and other rhetorical characteristics. The results indicated that the format of the debate allowed for little actual direct confrontation between…

A study analyzed the responses of chief executive officers (CEOs) and company presidents to a leadership test and an organizational environment test, to determine whether these individuals' managerial approaches coincided with their characterizations of their organizations' environments. Subjects, CEOs or presidents of 65 randomly selected…

Most often music radio stations use tip sheets and charts in selecting and scheduling music. To overcome the disadvantages of these methods, some radio stations have begun to use music call-out research. Data are obtained through theatre studies, shopping mall intercepts, mail surveys, telephone surveys, or through a combination of these…

A study was conducted to determine how Washington, D.C., reporters cover business policy issues and to explain why they report this news as they do. The study used J. Grunig's situational theory of communication behavior as a basis for developing a typology of Washington reporters based upon their perceptions of four business policy issues. A…

For several years, the "systems" metaphor has guided organizational communication research. Recently, however, a sizable number of management and organizational communication scholars have explored another guiding metaphor--that of organizational culture. Present notions of organizational culture tend to focus on static, structural…

A study examined the effects of level of self-disclosure, sex of discloser, and sex of observer on perceptions of interpersonal communication competence. Subjects were 165 undergraduate college students who listened to audiotapes of three different versions of a fictitious conversation between two people given the androgynous names of Pat and…

Although an important communication process, gossip rarely has been seriously studied. Distinct from rumor and self-disclosure, it can be defined as the communication process whereby information about another person's affairs or activities is disclosed and circulated in an exclusive manner in dyads. Some "functionalists" assert that…

To assess the context in which information is presented to readers and to know what demands information being presented makes of an audience, IBM designed three procedures to help gather such material. First, customer sites are visited to interview representatives from the intended audience and see the environments in which the information will be…

An American family lived for 12 months in the Spanish province of Galicia as participant observers in the daily performance of the cultural roles and rituals of people living in the city of Santiago de Compostela. Since focus was on the performative dimensions of the culture, 38 people were formally interviewed, along with more than 100 on an…

A study was conducted to examine communication apprehension of job candidates evaluated in company assessment centers. It was hypothesized that (1) candidates' scores on interactive or oral communication activities would be more predictive of job success than would noninteractive activity scores, (2) there would be a negative correlation between…

A rhetorical analysis was conducted of the four broadcast political debates that led to San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson's victory in the 1982 California senatorial race. Specifically, the analysis covered one primary debate held in San Diego among five of the seven Republican contenders and the three bipartisan debates held in Fresno, San Francisco,…

Understanding organizational cultures offers important and useful insights for the professional communicator. The fastest-growing area of interest in the study of modern organizations and their behavior is that of organizational cultures. There are at least two specific ways to categorize and discuss these cultures. The first is to divide them…