This book suggests new approaches to the role played by communication in social conflict situations. In "A Transactional Paradigm of Verbalized Social Conflict," C. David Mortensen calls for a transactional approach to the study of communication and conflict. Fred Jandt's "Communication and the Simulation of Social Conflict" stresses the…

This book is a collection of ideas and information, gathered from various sources, which should aid college students in formulating their own methods of improving communication. The four main sections of the book are "Concepts of Communication,""Concepts of Source and Message,""Concepts of Communication Criticism," and "Concepts of Interpersonal…

The public address of Afro-Americans currently relates mostly to their basic human rights as American citizens. Racism, either on an institutional or individual basis, permeates every facet of black life, and the public address and private communication of blacks focus largely on the experience of racism. Studies of public speaking by black…

Criticism and evaluation of classroom speeches in communication courses should be centered more on student oriented methods rather than on instructor evaluation alone. One approach is based on the use of seven-point differential scales, whereby students can provide immediate reactions to performances by their classmates. This method is of value to…

Developed as a quinmester unit for high schools on performance in argumentation and debate, this guide provides the teacher with teaching strategies for a study in which students refine their understanding of the principles of argumentation and debate through participation in classroom debate. The course includes the structuring of a variety of…

Personal satisfaction or enjoyment can be obtained from participation in the persuasive or informative processes of public discourse, partially because both are serious methods of attaining socially useful goals. The public speaker is challenged by the opportunity to raise his audience's level of information about a subject and to influence their…

Confrontation, or aggressive verbal behavior, has been defended as a rhetorical tactic by some communication theorists on five bases: biological, psychological, sociological, rhetorical, and intellectual. Proponents of "rhetorical sensitivity," however, differ from those who would accept confrontation uncritically. Confrontation is not…

Theories of mass communication have sought to explain how the media function internally and affect society. Rather than additional "response" studies, which investigate the impact of media on behavior or a society's impact on its media, more research should center on the functions of mass media within the overall framework of communication theory.…

A textbook called "Persuasion" was designed to provide discovery situations and a skills program to teach students to be aware of the ways in which they are influenced by various methods of communication, both public and private. The text focuses first on the persuader and the emotions he seeks to manipulate, then on the persuader and the image he…

The author suggests a critical approach to the rhetoric of the American Revolution focusing on the concept of "myth-making. This operates in revolutionary rhetoric when the revolutionist creates a spiritual dynamism for his movement through appeals that suggest the sanction of supra-rational forces. The author applies this concept to the…

The theme of this symposium was the classic concern about the rhetoric-poetic relationship as applied to modern communication problems. In the first paper, "The 'Vision' of Martin Luther King," Edwin Black postulates that Dr. King contributed to the development of a "revolutionary literature" because of his impact, not only on…

Crowding theoretically causes increased situational stress which in turn intensifies the pressure upon an individual to conform to the leading stimulus. The specific question of whether listeners in a densely packed audience respond more favorably to a persuasive speech than listeners in a less crowded environment was investigated. One hundred and…

The contributions of Cicero and Quintilian, the two leading Roman rhetoricians, were based on their acceptance of the prior philosophical theories of Isocrates, which emphasized a cultural approach to rhetoric. Cicero and Quintilian, drawing from Isocrates, sought prospective orators who had a natural talent for eloquence and who could adopt a…

The increasing occupation of journals with the subject of political persuasion is briefly surveyed. A set of principles which might be utilized to reconceive an inventional theory are proposed, and means through which these principles may be applied in studies of political persuasion are suggested. The decision to shift from a speaker/message…

The author discusses a study designed to examine a communications problem from a cognitive processing viewpoint, to determine if a change in the amount of cognitive processing time available to a listener could affect his response to a given message. To specify the internal sources of input brought to a message receiving situation, the author used…