Intended for teachers in communications and the language arts who are contemplating alternatives to teaching, this booklet provides a basic approach to communication consulting with fundamental definitions and practical guides to basic consulting principles. The first section of the booklet briefly discusses approaches to consulting and sources of…

Despite widespread indifference or resistence to the idea, communication scientists need to discuss the ethical implications of their research. Fortunate in being able to conduct research, scientists are responsible to and for the larger population in whose names they do their work. They need to realize that such traditional research areas and…

To examine the influence that biological sex and psychological gender have on trait argumentativeness, 219 subjects were asked to complete the Argumentativeness Scale and the Revised Bem Sex-Role Inventory. Subjects were classified according to sex and gender, and two-way analysis of variance was conducted. Additionally, discriminate analysis was…

Richard Nixon's 1952 "Checkers" speech was an innovative use of television for political communication. Like television news itself, the campaign fund crisis behind the speech can be thought of in the same terms as other television melodrama, with the speech serving as its climactic episode. The speech adapted well to television because…

This paper discusses the theory, research, and practice of communication in Spain, from the perspective of language, political economy, and culture. The peoples of the Iberian Peninsula and surrounding islands communicate in a rich variety of languages. In the electronic age, communication has shifted away from the print media to the spoken media,…

The construct of involvement, used by marketers and consumer behaviorists for many years as a predictive measure of the qualitative relationship between an individual and a stimulus, has long been defined as having affective or cognitive roots. However, definitions that favor one or the other too heavily are less helpful because they are too…

A study investigated the conversational forms leaders employ, exploring the relationship between leaders' conversations and symbolic outcomes. It was hypothesized (1) that effective conversations by leaders would be characterized by coordinated management episodes, positive spirals, perfunctory rituals, and value expressive rituals, whereas…

This paper examines past media research on presidential campaign debates, reviewing literature from the fields of mass communication, political science, and speech communication, and considering regulatory changes (e.g., debate sponsorship and equal time provisions) and the growth of primary and general debates as an institution. Beginning with…

A study was conducted to develop some understanding of how social experience might be related to public expectations of rights to privacy. A telephone questionnaire was developed which sought information about respondent knowledge, attitudes, and behavior regarding privacy and personal information. A national survey of adults over the age of 18…

This special report provides a survey of media in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and attempts to answer questions such as: what freedoms the mass media enjoy, the nature of their finances, what problems they have to deal with, and what their future in competition with new modes of communication will be like. Chapter 1 discusses the…

An empirical study examined politicians' use of public speaking teleprompters (PSTs) when delivering major addresses to determine if audiences made aware of this practice would more seriously question speaker credibility, sincerity, and communicative ability. After completing an initial survey about political attitudes and awareness, subjects, 36…

A study determined what constitutes an illegal pre-employment question, reviewed current laws and literature on the subject, and determined the prevalence of illegal questions asked by organizations. Except in the case of specific statutory law, there is no precise way to define what constitutes an illegal question; however, state and federal…

A study examined the creation of a new division within an organization, where members of management were primarily from an "immigrant" or regulatory culture, to determine the effects on management and professional satisfaction. Data were elicited through both a survey instrument and in-depth interviews with 26 current employees and 12…

In survey research, nonresponse has been one of the major concerns about survey accuracy and validity. A case in point is the increasing use of surveys in mass communications research; much previous research has dealt with nonresponse among the general public, but little is known about nonresponse in special subgroups in the population where any…

A research review examined the ethical responsibilities of a communicator in contemporary American society, particularly in governmental communication. Various scholars have suggested standards of ethical governmental communication and have questioned the ethics of governmental officials in several cases. Ethical analysis of President Ronald…