This study argues for the need to collect data on the interaction of imaginative processes and moral and ethical qualities of narrative. It locates the curricular context of experiential narratives and provides a narrative illustration of key terms from a moral theory. It reports on research in which experiential narratives were told to grades…

The mass media contribution to education politics is explored through the application of a pluralistic theoretical framework to evidence connected with the making of an episode of a U.K. current affairs television program. The episode addressed a politically contentious educational issue but proved controversial in itself. Several sources…

An ethnographic study explored the critical evaluations of audience members who viewed an ethnographic performance adapted, directed, and performed by a doctoral student in the Speech Communication Department on the campus of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The performance was a one-person show consisting of a series of personal…

This paper contrasts classical Aristotelian narrative, which encouraged intellectual reflection and came to dominate Hollywood film by the 1930s, with the pulsating images which began to appear in the 1980 as a result of MTV's influence on films. The discussion focuses on two major Hollywood films: "Grapes of Wrath" (1940) and "Top…

The Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPAs), funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, were undertaken in 1982, 1985, and 1992. This report is based on the data collected by the SPPA surveys. Although data on dance genres other than ballet were collected under the rubric "other…

Elementary and middle school teachers can employ storytelling techniques using selections such as episodes from children's novels to encourage even the most reluctant readers. The telling of complete episodes from novels causes reluctant readers to identify with a character and brings them into the plot. The Storytelling Episode Model (SEM) is a…

The "countercommencement" address (sometimes composed in reaction to the traditional commencement address) may be usefully criticized as an example of the rhetorical genre known as the "secular jeremiad." This provides a conceptual framework for interpreting the motives and meanings of such an address, which is typically…

This report summarizes the findings of a research project involving a consortium of American art museums that joined forced to understand themselves better from the perspective of their visitors. The project had three objectives: (1) to identify staff expectations and impressions of public expectations about art museums; (2) to evaluate public…

A qualitative study examined how teenagers react to and interpret certain popular media messages. In addition it explored the relationship between content containing various sexual messages and teenagers' responses to those messages, with particular attention to the critical abilities this audience exhibits. Fifty male and female teenagers aged…

A study examined the impact of remote control devices, videocassette recorders, and cable television on inheritance effects (the tendency for viewers to continue watching a channel at the conclusion of a program). Inheritance effects were measured by calculating the correlation between program share and lead-in program share for all primetime…

Transformational, charismatic leadership occurs in a conflict-ridden situation, where attendant emotional travail is so uncomfortable that macro and micro structures will admit to change in efforts to relieve the tension. An inspirational message that redefines and reprioritizes deeply cherished values and the leader's role-modeling influence…

A study examined the uses and functions of broadcast sports programming as compared with in-person attendance of sporting events by focusing on the motivations, behavior, and attitudes of audiences toward such activities. Subjects, 219 students from a major western university, completed a survey instrument. Findings indicated that: (1) sports…

To measure Denver viewers' parasocial tendencies (inclinations to establish vicarious relationships) with TV news personalities, a study conducted a telephone survey in the Denver metropolitan area in October and November, 1987. The study examined viewer reactions to four local stations'"news teams" and individual news…

This paper examines how the new communication technology is challenging the "old" media, which includes radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and motion picture. The paper first provides an operational functional description of each of these media. Next the paper suggests another way to look at existing media. The paper then…

This paper discusses how "The Ladies' Home Journal" was used by its editor, Edward Bok, in his crusade for food and drug regulation in the United States between the years 1890 and 1906, and whether these efforts were influential in bringing about the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. The first section describes "The Ladies' Home…