Describes how to more effectively communicate the visual element in video and audiovisual materials. Discusses identifying a central topic, developing the visual content without words, preparing a storyboard, testing its effectiveness on people who are unacquainted with the production, and writing the script with as few words as possible. (AEF)

Applies fantasy theme analysis to Richard Nixon's "Checkers" speech. States that three major themes emerge: Nixon as Moral Model, Nixon as the American Dream, and Nixon as Patriot. Points out that each issue responds to allegations of dishonesty that were leveled against him at the time. Argues that Nixon's speech was accepted and…

Investigates the nature and extent of violence contained in television programming that targets children aged 12 and younger. Notes that the violence itself is just as likely to be glamorized in children's as in nonchildren's shows, but it is even more sanitized and more likely to be trivialized. Documents five subgenres of children's programming…

Creates a general set of guidelines for playgoing. Presents and discusses ideas such as: reading the program, looking at the space, studying the set, listening to the language, meeting the characters, watching the actors, examining the director's influence, and imagining the logistics. (SC)

Audience analysis involves the process of gathering and interpreting information about the recipients of oral, written, or visual communication. Audience awareness involves the conceptions of the writer, speaker, or performer concerning the recipients of his or her communication. Regardless of whether the author is sharing an oral history,…

Case study teaching is difficult in large classes, especially in fixed-seat amphitheaters. The development of audience response systems, or "clickers," for use in classrooms has opened up exciting new possibilities for creating and implementing interactive case studies, particularly in large introductory science courses.

Audience Response Technology (ART) has been widely adopted on college campuses, and prior research indicates that, on average, it receives positive evaluations from students. However, research has not yet examined how characteristics of students as learners influence their responses to ART. The current study examined aptitude for learning,…

From a rhetorical perspective, Mendel's work and its reception elicit two important questions: (a) why were Mendel's arguments so compelling to 20th century biologists? And (b) why where they so roundly ignored by his contemporaries? The focus of this article is to examine the latter question while commenting on the former by employing several…

Recursion is a programming paradigm as well as a problem solving strategy thought to be very challenging to grasp for university students. This article outlines a pilot study, which expands the age range of students exposed to the concept of recursion in computer science through instruction in a series of interesting and engaging activities. In…

The purpose of this study was to examine individual differences in attitudes toward Audience Response Systems (ARSs) in secondary school classrooms. Specifically, the impact of gender, grade, subject area, computer comfort level, participation level, and type of use were examined in 659 students. Males had significantly more positive attitudes…

This study was an empirical investigation of active student responding (ASR) utilizing a student response system (SRS) vs. single student questioning (SSQ) and no student responding in a graduate level special education class of 23 participants. During the SRS condition, every participant responded to questions using remotes/clickers. During the…

A discussion of second language (L2) pronunciation looks at the ways in which native-like pronunciation can be defined. It addresses, through review of relevant literature and more detailed examination of a study by the author, these issues: how to identify native-like pronunciation; how to measure pronunciation in comparison with native speakers'…

Three empirical studies focused on viewer reactions to ethical issues in television news, and on actions audience members felt were appropriate to control possibly unethical behaviors in television broadcasting. The first study was a 12-minute telephone survey of 293 randomly selected adults in Minneapolis-St. Paul (Minnesota) in 1989 to determine…

If forensic oral interpretation selections are to communicate to audiences, forensics educators must first help their students discover the messages that exist within texts and are communicated through programming and performance. The concepts of relevancy, significance, and depth of insight provide a general background for which aesthetic…

The use of video images, tempered with good judgment and some restraint, can serve a stage play as opposed to stealing its thunder. An experienced director of university theater productions decided to try to incorporate video images into his production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." The production drew from the works…