Responds to essays in a special issue on criteria for admissibility of evidence in communication research and how methodology affects what is considered to be evidence. Argues that communication research could benefit from a more connectional, conversational attitude toward scholarship. (SR)

Uses methods of microanalysis and naturalistic description to illuminate the forms, uses, meanings, and functions of hand gestures. Describes speakers' methods for making hand gestures relevant to the moment of symbolic communication. Finds that gestures are "exposed" by means of indexical uses of gaze and language. (SR)

Finds that naive human lie detectors follow content-related heuristics (like infrequency of reported events or falsifiability) but can flexibly change their strategy as they learn about authentic nonverbal cues that discriminate lies from truthful communications. (SR)

Examines the influence of verbal descriptions on impression judgments formed through communicative interactions among college students. Finds that only positive descriptions influenced judgments of negative persons and that order of presentation was not significant. Suggests that interactive judgment processes may differ significantly from…

Discusses the way in which technical communication has achieved a complexity that reflects quality as well as quantity as it matures into a significant field of study supported by both an historical base and a developing theoretical framework. (NH)

Normalizes titles of 634 "Human Communication Research" articles using linguistic reduction, elimination of common words, and terms with indiscriminate meaning, and tokenization of phrases and compound concepts. Finds that concepts were grouped into five large clusters: media, family, conflict, and learning; culture, social organization, and self;…

Offers a theoretical structure for concepts within relational communication. Distinguishes between substantive variables and intensifier variables. Argues that relational judgments are hieratically organized such that dominance and affiliation subsume the more specific facets of relational communication. Shows that involvement was positively…

Describes the author's ongoing research which surveys World Wide Web authors and analyzes their Web productions to explore the strategies and the rhetoric for a personal presence (that of ordinary citizens) on the Web. Finds that individuals on the Web often put on the appearances of organizational status. Calls this use of institutional…

Contributes to scholarship on the effects of negative publicity. Notes that the Dutch equivalent of the District Attorney's Office actively spreads information about its suspicions of illegal behavior which are published by newspapers. Finds that corporate image was seriously damaged by negative publicity, and the more categorical the accusations…

Finds (1) that corporate use of certainty in public business discourse is not affected by organizational profitability status or industry type; (2) a significant difference in the use of certainty exists between corporate oral and written communications; and (3) the use of certainty in corporate public business discourse does not differ…

Habermas's theory of communicative action, which interprets reason in terms of mutual understanding and recognition, supports "selves-directed learning," a more affective-emotional and social process than individualistic, instrumental self-directed learning. (SK)

Discusses the contested role of images in electronic editions, and summarizes the arguments for their inclusion. Argues that, to determine the importance of images to the function of electronic editions, an understanding of the contribution that the image makes to the form of textual knowledge embodied in the edition is necessary. (DSK)

Describes how changes in technical-communication education between 1950 and 1998 have led to disciplinary maturity: the development of academic programs and a body of innovative research. Discusses how technical communication, as a thriving multidiscipline with many direct research and pedagogical connections to the work place, can uniquely…

Finds (1) no clear instances of generic "he" in conversation but (2) that speakers use "they" as an unmarked singular generic pronoun. Finds some possibly-generic uses of "he" situates these within controversies about gender-fair references to women and men and concludes that conversational uses of "he" seem more various and complex (and perhaps…

Presents a study in which ads in simulated telephone directory pages were highlighted in red, green, and blue colors. States that the pages were presented to subjects in order to be recalled and recognized among other ads. Finds that red and green highlighting increases recallability and recognizability whereas blue decreases it. (PA)