Explores organizational trust through psychological/sociological avenues. Argues that trust is a critical factor in overcoming communication barriers that are context-related (communication environment or setting) and content-related (the message itself or the participants). Suggests that trust can be improved by applying identified strategies.…

Suggests that the 1988 Southern regional primary may have shifted perceptions about the region's political importance. Concludes through surveys of 1028 eligible Southern voters that exposure to news media, but not partisan information, was positively and significantly related to awareness of the primary and perceptions of increased Southern…

Examines how boys and girls use features of stories to accomplish and restructure social identities within encounters. Finds that boys use stories to continue an ongoing argument while reshaping the domain of dispute. Finds that girls use stories to restructure alignments of participants in the current interaction and at some future time. (RS)

Applies rhetorical theory to newsletters produced by two political-activist organizations. Illustrates applications of schema theory, social construction, and theories about audience to newsletters with sample passages. (KEH)

Examines in-house documentation situations in which software manual writers and project managers intersect the manual writing project with ongoing organizational dynamics. Analyses two strategies that in-house writers need for project management: conducting contextual audience analyses and acting as liaisons in their workplaces. (KEH)

Argues that conceptualizations of and empirical studies on compliance and compliance-gaining often reflect a social exchange or a power perspective, which typically push communication into the background of the compliance-gaining process. Provides examples of studies adopting a power perspective without undercutting the role of communication in…

Examines persuaders' decision processes activated by receivers' resistance, specifically the roles of friendliness and intensity of resistance on persuaders' verbal aggressiveness. Finds higher average verbal aggressiveness associated with unfriendly resistance, and a more rapid move to verbal aggressiveness associated with stronger resistance.…

Explores the narrative construction of Israeli symbolism by tracing the tellings and retellings of the story of the 1936-39 settlement operation known as "Tower and Stockade." Highlights the dialogical process in which such high profile, multivocal national narratives participate and considers the rhetorical role they play in the larger…

Studies viewer response to graphic horror films. Reports that undergraduate mass communication students viewed clips from two horror films and a scientific television program. Concludes that people who score high on measures for wandering imagination, fictional involvement, humanistic orientation, and emotional contagion tend to find horror films…

Introduces the concept of telephone apprehension. Argues that the concept is potentially useful to management scholars. Reports results of five studies that yield a reliable and valid self-report instrument (the Telephone Apprehension Measure) for measuring telephone apprehension in college undergraduates, employed adults, and practicing managers.…

Asks public relations educators what they think about core classes required for students in their field. Finds they generally support the idea that their students should take core mass communications courses, even if such core courses are developed from a traditional journalism/news-editorial standpoint. (MS)

Examines use of message discrimination in a multicity health campaign project. Addresses three issues: message recall patterns as functions of instrument length and sociodemographic variables; types of messages recalled; and interviewer effects. Suggests that three open-ended "question cycles" are sufficient for recall and that…

Examines the use and experience of music videos, video games, and videocassettes among children and young adolescents. Finds that boys reacted with greater arousal and more positive affective states to new video media as compared to traditional media, while girls reported lower affect and arousal, expecially during video games and music videos.…

Examines the terms used to describe the process of subcultural change (adaptation, appropriation, commodization, cooptation, and incorporation), demonstrating their limits. Introduces a more exact term, "persistence," and recommends its use and the elimination of other terms. Uses one subcultural organization, Redwood Records (a women's…

Introduces a special journal issue on intracultural patterns of communication. Reviews research on intercultural communication from 1980-89. Argues that culture and intercultural communication are the most important global communication issues in the 1990s. Presents an intracultural communication research agenda for the 1990s. (SR)