Discussion of the education of students with autism focuses on the use of multimedia systems and reviews the current state of the field. Suggests that systems should be developed that directly address autism-specific impairments and considers autistic student education in the context of equality of access to education. (Author/LRW)

Examines how viewers or readers process and remember media narratives such as entertainment, news, and information. Considers how this is critical to the understanding of the mental processing of television and other media. Finds that undergraduate students who participated in two experiments remembered atypical story items much better even a week…

Investigates whether the third-person effect extends to perceptions of other people's television viewing, and whether it can be explained by a general tendency to underrate the education of others. Finds that people tended to perceive others as more inclined toward undesirable viewing behaviors, and that this third-person perception was stronger…

Analyzes gendered representations of Alanis Morissette, Kate Moss, and Ally McBeal. Argue that, in each case, the appropriation of third-wave feminist tenets is accomplished via a postmodern aesthetic code of juxtaposition that serves to recontextualize and reinscribe those sensibilities in a way that ultimately functions to reify dominant…

Investigates how media have influenced identity formation of young adults (17-19 years). Concludes that while the media can and does exert some influence on the personal identity of young adults, it is tempered by the other influencing factors in their lives, and does not seem to lead them in a direction that is completely foreign to them. (RS)

The Miscellaneous Studies section of this collection of conference presentations contains the following 22 papers: "Men and Women Journalists in the Movies: Exploration of Some Sexism and Gender Issues in Their Portrayals in Eleven Films" (Albert D. Talbott); "Female Archetypes in Late '80s Films" (Fakhri Haghani); "Chain…

This paper presents an in-depth look at semantics and how it has been and continues to be studied in mass communication. The paper notes that modern communication scholars have largely ignored the importance of semantics to mass media research. The paper examines the historical roots of semantics, noting that the 1930s saw the intellectual…

This paper analyzes Robert Epstein's Academy Award winning documentary "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt," which consciously employs a binary rhetoric, a "common" method, by which to read the complex narrativity of the Names Project Quilt (the quilt memorial to AIDS victims). The paper addresses the inherently rhetorical…

The Internet is becoming the primary way that businesses communicate and receive information. Corporate Web addresses and home pages have become a valuable tool for leaving a solid mark on potential clients, consumers, and competition. To determine how differences in Web pages design reflect corporate image, a study examined Web pages from two…

The Visual Communication section of the Proceedings contains the following 12 papers: "The Limits of Copyright Protection for the Use of Visual Works in Motion Pictures, Print Media, and Pop Art in the 1990s" (Andy Bechtel and Arati Korwar); "Afterthoughts on the Representational Strategies of the FSA Documentary" (Edgar…

One of the few broadcast interpretationists recorded in the history of radio, Frank Alden Russell--whose Ted Malone programs spanned three decades on local stations and national networks--perhaps best represents both the initiation and prime of broadcast interpretation. Born in 1908, Russell became interested in oral performance when he was…

A study examined spatial factors (minority population, segregation, racial differences in the workforce and the educational system, and minority public officials) and organizational factors (ownership and circulation) that may predict newsroom minority employment. Data for this secondary analysis of 172 newspapers were gathered from earlier…

Observing that most adults' present conceptions of the computer have been shaped by media images, a content analysis was conducted of 169 articles on computers published in six popular magazines from the 1940s through 1969. The articles were coded in terms of their themes and topics, and the specific terms used to refer to computers in each…

This symposium paper looks at three paradigms for naturalistic research on visuals: the positivistic, the interpretive, and the critical approaches. Discussion centers on questions of epistemology, such as "What do you mean?" and "How do you know?" The place of naturalistic inquiry within this discussion is indicated, and…

Outlines the development of human communication skills and discusses possible influences of media technology on such development in the future. (MH)