This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the role of public discourse in the soil conservation movement from 1865 to 1935; (2) Dwight D. Eisenhower's public imagery of the Soviet Union and Communist China as presented in…

Noting that technology in the field of graphics and printing has permitted greater use of color, photographs, and graphics by newspapers, a study examined the effects of economic factors such as newspaper competition and ownership on the actual use of new technology for color and graphics. The newspaper sample, stratified on the basis of ownership…

Recognizing that writing suicide stories is hard for reporters, a study examined 1,010 suicide stories from the 1879-1900 era published in 12 newspapers from around the United States to determine how American journalists at other times carried out similar assignments. The newspapers examined were the Atlanta "Constitution," Arkansas…

Recent research on writing that sheds light on writing instruction in English as a second language (ESL) focuses on contrastive rhetoric (the interference of first language rhetoric experienced by the second language learner), patterns of development in English scientific texts that cause problems for second language readers, the contrastive use…

This paper reports on a 1983 national survey that focused on programmatic activity in teacher induction. Responses were obtained from various professionals from the 50 state education agencies. A content analysis of teacher induction programs already in effect was also made. The first set of questions in the survey questionnaire inquired as to…

Periodic summaries of research techniques used in important journals help professors of educational research teach each new generation of researchers. Literature published in "American Educational Research Journal" (AERJ), "Educational Researcher" (ER), and "Review of Educational Research (RER) is reviewed for the 10-year…

Suburban middle class American situation comedies of the 1950s and 1960s idealized the postwar family ensemble with its unproblematic achievement of quality family life. The homemaker as portrayed in these sitcoms was positioned at the center of the postwar consumer economy by the consumer product industry, which built its economy on defining the…

This study analyzes and synthesizes the published information on doctoral programs, dissertations, and graduate students in library and information science in the United States from 1960 to 1980, and identifies those aspects that have been reported in the literature since the publication of the last such study in 1959. Data were gathered by manual…

Focusing on a serious social problem that links mass communication and society, this paper uses the techniques of irony and meta-research to examine the paradoxial discrepancies between the intent of acts and the outcomes of actions in social and media policy in the culture of alcohol. It examines the history and folklore of alcohol and community;…

Both sentence length and sentence complexity of various kinds of newspaper prose were examined in a study to determine (1) ways newspaper prose differs from the prose of books native English speaking students chose to read and enjoy reading and (2) whether there are features of newspaper prose other than vocabulary and a lack of international news…

The commercials on the Sky Channel, the first pan-European satellite television channel, and on the West German Channel 2 (or ZDF) are analyzed in this report. The study summarizes an investigation of the economic consequences of transborder television advertising in Europe and the consequences for consumers if television advertising grows or is…

This paper deals with Latino audiences in the United States and explores how socially beneficial research agenda can deal with their communication needs and result in better and more programming on public broadcasting services. Latino audiences are defined as persons of Spanish language heritage, regardless of surname or country origin. A…

Noting that the television movie "The Day After" (aired November 20, 1983) is probably the most important of the films generating discussion about the issue of nuclear war, this paper describes a study that examined the rhetorical vision of nuclear war depicted in the film and the ways in which that vision corresponds to the images held…

Research findings are reported concerning the extent to which writing assignments in contrasting examples of upper elementary science curriculum materials are likely to engage students in higher order thinking and problem solving, and to facilitate meaningful learning of scientific concepts. Organized around a common set of elaborate framing…

A study was undertaken to determine aspects of gender-related differences in mathematics achievement among 10th graders (n=253). More specifically, the following aspects were assessed: (1) gender-related differences and similarities on specific process-, content-, and micro-component aspects; (2) stability of the patterns of differences and…