Examines and challenges theories of account giving and public image following an accusation of sexual harassment in the workplace, using college students and working adults as subjects. Challenges the existing theories of account giving and public image, and lays to rest the notion that full apologies and excuses are mitigating in serious account…

Defines news icons, and discusses life cycle of a news icon. Offers a case study of coverage patterns of a garbage barge that for three months in 1987 was rejected at every port. Finds that the incident provided an occasion for journalists and their sources to refigure cultural scripts about garbage and recycling to produce news as cultural forum.…

Compares how faculty in two academic organizations (an American university faculty and a Chinese faculty in Taiwan) evaluate levels of communication satisfaction within their organizations. Finds the difference in satisfaction level statistically significant. Suggests that social/cultural characteristics may affect communication in the…

Investigates the use of the term "family" by Earvin "Magic" Johnson, his peers, and the media in their rhetorical efforts to defend Johnson after his announcement that he had human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Discusses the power of key words such as "family" to influence attitudes in the American culture. (RS)

Summarizes a study to identify preschool administrative and teacher variables predicting the frequency of parent-teacher communication. The sample consisted of 483 preschool teachers attending an early childhood institute. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that administrative "center supports" contributed the most to…

The performance of 32 undergraduates (aged 17-27 years) on a map task show that interactive style influences choices of forms of introduction. Assumptions about shared knowledge and prior task experience also influenced choices. (Contains 30 references.) (JA)

Presents a two-part study that looks at the impact of social support on college adjustment among "traditional" campus residents and commuters. Begins with a review of social support measures and the relationship between commuting and college adjustment. Finds factors critical to academic adjustment vary in the contexts of commuting students and…

Examines responses to misleading word-picture combinations. Finds that in contexts where race and gender can play a role in audience members' construction of meaning, the conditions may be conducive to the creation of libel. Shows how nothing literally defamatory was communicated, yet many subjects made just such linkages, both immediately and…

Analyzes research based on data drawn from the cultures of Puerto Rico, Finland, Australia, and the United States. Finds a very positive relationship between immediacy and perceived cognitive learning in each culture studied, but the magnitude of the relationships varied substantially. Discusses implications. (PA)

Offers a novel exploration of students' use of three Internet functions (information retrieval, information giving, and conversation capabilities) in the context of the use of other communication media. Demonstrates that the Internet is a multidimensional technology used in a manner similar to other, more traditional media. (SC)

Introduces, through a conversation with computer-system designers from the Netherlands, the Language/Action Perspective on modeling business workflow and communication processes. Describes their attempts to develop system models that go beyond data flow to incorporate the communicative actions or transactions that result in the creation of a…

Suggests a research agenda that would provide a basis for proposing normative recommendations for information management in health contexts. Overviews information seeking and avoiding processes. Describes challenges and dilemmas faced by those who seek, avoid, and provide information. Offers research questions derived from a normative agenda for…

Uses heuristic inquiry to explore learning in professional developmental relationships of nine mid-career women. Finds that women's developmental relationships are created and sustained largely through talk, and that they experience not only instrumental, performance-based learning, but also learning that significantly revises beliefs, attitudes,…

Argues for a reconsideration of rumor from an interpretive perspective and articulates a theoretical perspective that combines organizational culture with Burke's guilt-purification-redemption cycle. Concludes that students use rumor to make sense of and to cope with problematic aspects of their university-life pertaining to roommates, academic…

Replies to C. M. Condit's responses to the authors' articles and comments advancing a communibiological paradigm. Argues that a general misidentification of the level of abstraction (paradigm not theory) drives Condit's complaints about communibiology, and outlines several misrepresentations of the authors' position. (SR)