Investigates retrospective participant accounts of the "First Big Fight" (FBF). Finds four conditions leading up to the FBF, three effects of the FBF, and three differences between the "non-survivors" and the "survivors." (SR)

States that although many theater producers assume that child audiences empathize and identify with stage heroes during performances, some do not believe children can or should verbalize their private empathetic experiences. Presents results from a study of grade school children that challenges theoretical assumptions about emotional learning…

Examines the process through which a fear appeal transforms low-involvement audiences into active publics. Analyzes cognitive and emotional responses of uninvolved viewers to a film on environmental contamination, together with coping strategies used to deal with the threat. Concludes that cognition and affect mediate viewers' responses to a…

Argues that the practice and influence of design history can benefit from new forms of visual and chronological analysis. Identifies and discusses a unique phenomenon, the "historical visual narrative." Examines special instances of this phenomenon in twentieth-century design and visual culture, which are tied to the theme of the…

Explains that when organizations face crises, their rhetorical response often follows two steps: assessment of causes leading to the crisis, and a search for potential solutions and preventive measures for the future. States that epideictic rhetoric designed to sustain or regain the organization's reputation is effective in both steps. Examines…

Tests the persuasive impact of synesthetic metaphors (which equate sense A to sense B) in advertising headlines. Finds that in some circumstances, synesthetic headlines produce less, rather than more, favorable attitudes toward the advertisement and brand than literal equivalents. (SR)

Describes study comparing views of husbands and wives toward day-to-day communication practices. Initial data analysis yielded 24 items contributing to 7 factors. Wives tended to report less communication or rate communication lower than husbands, but both husbands and wives were generally satisfied with communication in marriages. (Author/CRR)

Describes a study in which drug information leaflets given to patients were improved in two ways, first by adding a short introductory paragraph on the nature of side effects generally, and second by adjusting frequency descriptors to more accurately reflect pretesting of the drug. Explains that participants in the study were less likely to…

Extends prior research on communication barriers to the tax practitioner-IRS agent relationship. Provides survey responses from 98 tax practitioners pinpointing serious behavioral and personality barriers, inflexible thinking, technical competence, and close-minded attitudes of IRS agents. Suggests that the Internal Revenue Service might use…

Finds no support for cohort-centrism from a communication perspective, but finds that older persons viewed their conversational partners, whether young or old, to be more competent than did younger persons, and were more satisfied conversing with young persons. Finds that younger persons were less satisfied, regardless of the age of the…

Indicates that issue/advocacy advertising inoculates against attitude change among undergraduate students, while simultaneously protecting sponsors against slippage in ratings of source credibility, after exposure to a persuasive attack on behalf of an opposing position. (SR)

Proposes a framework for evaluating the degree to which communication technologies promote or inhibit ethical communication practices. Demonstrates the framework's applicability in an explication of the ethical problems associated with "caller identification." (SR)

Discusses the establishment of collective memory studies. Addresses six premises for collective remembering that are basic to contemporary scholarship: that collective memory is processual, unpredictable, partial, useable, both particular and universal, and material. Discusses the future of collective memory studies. (SR)

Argues that the two principle modes of organizing rhetorical theories in histories of rhetoric (according to influence or systems) frequently mask or distort the particularity of rhetoric's history. Forwards an alternative critical history that privileges the notions of text, particularity, change, and criticism. (SR)

Clarifies how the scheme systems work in C. Perleman and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca's "The New Rhetoric," responds to a critique of it, and examines patterns of scheme use in five panel discussions. Concludes that the description of inferential scheme categories in "The New Rhetoric" is generally complete and useful for the study of…