A review of research on the roles played by the mass media and the political parties during the agenda-setting stage of political activity in the United States indicates that the mass media have assumed some of the informing and issue-initiating functions generally understood to be performed by political parties. It seems desirable to develop an…

A study examined the effects of gender on social interaction under numerically imbalanced conditions. Specifically, the study tested R. M. Kanter's assumption that all tokens (individuals who enter a work environment where their gender is numerically scarce) respond in a similar manner to token conditions, although evidence exists that males and…

Although "whistle blowing" (public protest by employees of management decisions) is being reported with increasing frequency, this paper points out that organizational communication researchers have not examined the phenomenon. The paper offers a review of current literature on the topic and presents a model, drawn from an examination of…

A descriptive field study was conducted in Seoul, Korea, to assess Korean interpersonal communication. The data for the study were collected through observations of interpersonal communication patterns among students in university classes, between faculty and students as well as among various faculty members, among business people, and between the…

An examination was undertaken of the relationship between some socioeconomic variables, particularly communication exposure variables, and the political participation of Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans, and Cubans living in Chicago, Illinois. Data for the investigation were taken from an earlier survey of the communication patterns and…

This paper discusses the question of the legitimacy of applying structural analysis to actual human behavior and illustrates its legitimacy by using the reasoning in an essay by Paul Ricoeur. It then asks if the principles of communication development (obliqueness, exchange, and dying) derived from Helen Keller's experience of communication…

Noting that previous research in the area of relational communication has been concerned primarily with the control defining patterns of symmetry and complementarity, this paper investigates how other dimensions of social relationships might be incorporated with descriptions of the control dimensions. After a review of some conceptualizations and…

Interviews with 548 heads of household randomly selected from the Columbus, Ohio, telephone directory provided data on the subjects' political knowledge, news information sources (television, newspapers), and educational level. These data supported three of five hypotheses about the relation between knowledge level and media dependence. There was…

Communication apprehension among Hawaiians is the subject of three related papers in this document. Each of the papers defines communication apprehension and discusses the implications of such anxiety on a person's functioning in society. The first paper describes a study in which 16% of a sample of University of Hawaii students, also employed,…

Defining schemas as specific representations of world knowledge, this paper contends that schema theory offers a promising approach toward the development of a comprehensive theory of communication. The paper traces the development of schema theory, reviews current literature on the subject, and points out its potential for use in future…

The General Systems Theory paradigm, which has been criticized for its emphasis on consensus, hierarchy, and growth while failing to appreciate diversity or alternative structural possibilities, is examined in this paper. A review of the literature in management and administrative science revealed these criticisms to have merit, but it also showed…

The news stories about the governor of Connecticut that appeared in 12 Connecticut daily newspapers during three-month periods in 1967 and 1976 were examined for the news sources used--whether the stories were written by local newspaper staff, local news service, or national wire service. The results demonstrate a significantly higher percentage…

The Korean Mothers' Club Program, a large national program of family planning that relies strongly on existing channels of interpersonal communication at the village level for its success, is reviewed in this monograph. The efforts of one such club to help an extremely poor village, Oryu Li, to achieve a large measure of pride, confidence, and…

The two studies of predisposition toward verbal behavior (PVB) reported in this paper examined the behavior of interactants who have dissimilar verbal predispositions in task-oriented discussions. In the first study, 20 groups of three members each were given an interpersonal task that involved reaching a consensus. In the second study, 17 pairs…

Designed to investigate intra-audience effects in a field setting, this study tested three hypotheses: (1) subjects who are exposed to favorable audience responses by confederates will display more favorable assessments than subjects who are exposed to less favorable responses; (2) subjects who are exposed to favorable audience responses will…