A study examined the opinions of a substantial segment of the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) community about gender exclusive language. Questionnaires were distributed at two large but diverse CEDA debate tournaments. A total of 180 usable surveys were returned to the 390 distributed. Survey respondents (112 men, 66 women) included…

The number of women participating in intercollegiate debate is proportionately lower than their representation on campuses. Furthermore, women's rate of success at the highest level of the Cross Examination Debate Association national competition is far lower than their representation in the organization. However, as women enter fields such as…

Asking questions is a salient event in group learning environments such as classrooms. Laboratory experimental results indicate that co-learner questions can affect judgments of comprehension. A study involving 94 male and 209 female students at a large midwestern university examined whether students would be aware of such alterations in…

There is a paucity of research on racism in communication studies in spite of the fact that racism continues to be a social problem which plagues the United States. This paper reviews evidence which points to the existence of institutionalized racism. This evidence is further supported by Carl Rowan's (1996) "The Coming Race War In America" in…

Research has established the important and positive relationship between informal student-faculty interactions and student retention. To add to the scant research on out-of-class communication (OCC), a study investigated the relationship between OCC and instructor immediacy, trust, and conversation control, and student motivation for students and…

The Mass Media Effects section of the proceedings contains the following eight papers: "The Spiral of Static: A Multivariate Analysis of a Public Opinion Theory Applied to Perception of Radio Station Popularity" (Terry Wedel and Tony Rimmer); "More Than Just Talk: Uses, Gratifications and the Telephone" (Garrett J. O'Keefe and…

Support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, based on the 12 steps of recovery, have grown tremendously over the last several years. Personal narratives are an integral part of the recovery process because the signs that are used, and the semiotic webs that they form, are similar among people who belong to 12-step groups. In these groups,…

A study investigated how impulsiveness affects perceptions of risks, and examined message strategies that might be effective in reaching risk-takers. Twenty-two undergraduate subjects who scored high on a risk-taking measure/survey participated in one of four 60-90 minute focus groups in which participants discussed their health, their concerns…

A study investigated the impact of organizational climate and job expectations on black and white managerial job satisfaction, and the factors leading to job satisfaction for black and white managers in a retail outlet. One hundred twenty-four managers and assistant managers from a major public owned retail chain organization on the east coast…

Teacher immediacy has surfaced as an important instructional communication variable, yet little is known about how it functions to effect learning. To offer an explanation as to how teacher immediacy facilitates learning, a study investigated implicit communication theory. Subjects consisted of 625 undergraduate students who completed…

Media effects should not be thought of as either isomorphic or fragmentary. Instead, the similarities and differences between them should be studied. This approach would offer the potential to determine not only what the media effects are, but how they occur. This is possible through the discovery of patterns in research theories and findings. To…

A study investigated whether student non-comprehension strategy use would vary according to learning environment by looking at the tutoring session--a more intimate learning situation than the classroom. Through collection and analysis of five tape-recorded tutoring sessions, results indicated that the eight undergraduate students were more likely…

A study examined the means by which inferences and emotions combine to motivate conflict escalation in response to nonverbal displays of status. Subjects, 64 male and 105 female volunteers enrolled in communication courses at a university located in the northeastern part of the United States, completed a verbal aggressiveness scale and a personal…

A pilot study investigated whether the levels of public speaking anxiety were significant among the graduate teaching assistants in the speech communication program at a large midwestern university. The 12 subjects were attending a 3-day, 24-hour workshop in training before the beginning of the semester. All subjects were master's degree students…

A study investigated culturally shaped patterns of behavior and how receptive or resistant people in an educational setting are to different viewpoints held by members of other cultures. As background, an extensive literature review probed the definitions of "culture" and "ethnocentrism," the causes of ethnocentrism, and how…