Discusses the use of natural language captions versus content analysis for retrieving multimedia data such as pictures. Topics addressed include using caption syntax; additional inferences from captions; supercaptions; integrating content analysis; and results of experiments on an expert system with pictures. (Contains 11 references.) (LRW)

Notes that athletic coaches appear infrequently in young adult novels and are typically narrowly drawn, flat characters. Discusses numerous "coaches" in young adult novels. Suggests that these coaches reflect the real-life good and bad coaches that exist in society. (RS)

Argues that, as the category of "technical products" has expanded and the public's enthusiasm for such products has lessened, marketing writers have begun to reconsider their approaches to technology in ads. Studies two technical ads in detail, and compares the ways in which they portray technology. (SR)

Reviews the research on sampling for daily newspapers and explores various sampling techniques for weekly newspapers. Contrasts different sample types to assess their utility in representing weekly newspaper content. Uses five content measures and tests three sampling techniques: simple random sampling and two "constructed year" samples,…

Presents a content analysis of Chinese newspapers before and after the Tiananmen Square protest. Shows that top leaders manipulated symbols given to the media and that these symbols rigorously highlighted the dominant ideology of the Chinese Communist Party and isolated participants of the 1989 Student Movement to legitimize the military…

Examines how particular characteristics of two companies' press releases, generated during a hostile takeover attempt, influenced the media's news decisions. Finds that press releases from Prime Computer were associated with newspaper articles that were longer, more favorable to its point of view, and contained the same lead message points as…

Examines the use of religious and sexual imagery in rock music videos to determine their frequency of occurrence and occurrence in combination. Content analysis of 160 videos shows that religious imagery is present in a significant and nonrandom fashion and that it is more likely to occur with sexual imagery than without it. (SLD)

Discusses portrayals of animals in children's realistic animal fiction over the course of the 20th century. Shows how the definition of animal hero generally changed from wild animals that were heroic for surviving against all odds to domesticated animals that were heroic for rescuing humans from wild beasts. Discusses animals as victims. (SR)

Indicates reporters used more successful question types, asked questions more concisely, were equally if not more likely to jeopardize question clarity, and were more likely to ask more argumentative, accusatory, and leading questions than undecided voters. Finds that both groups did reasonably well addressing topics considered important in making…

Describes a study that was conducted to investigate and describe the way in which people organize documents in their offices. Results from the investigation of eight faculty members are discussed and analyzed, the process used to make classification decisions is described, and implications for conventional systems of classification are suggested.…

Explores the authority of experience, the role it plays, and the limits it sets in teaching for diversity. Questions whether teachers can teach what they have never experienced. Discusses Nella Larsen's novel "Passing," with emphasis on the confusion of racial and sexual relations, as a difficult situation similar to the classroom. (HB)

Investigates main idea instruction in three basal reading series. Finds statistically significant differences in main idea instruction for the parameters "main idea task" and "acknowledgement of strategies mediating main idea task." Determines that basal reader materials rarely encourage students to monitor their main idea…

Presents the results of a study which investigated the views of religion offered in 40 young adult books published between 1983 and 1987. The study focused on the role of, and attitudes toward, religion presented in the books. It was found that religion has a definite presence in these books. (42 references) (MAB)

Presents a classification system for developmental psychology that was constructed by means of a survey of articles published in the journals "Child Development" and "Developmental Psychology" in 1969 and 1987. The survey found that eight empirical questions encompassed the full range of empirical interests expressed by…

Reports on an exploratory study of computer-mediated communication (CMC) that was conducted to provide empirical evidence of the emergence of social norms in computer conferencing. Results of a content analysis of transcripts of BITNET conferences are described, and a case study of one conference is included. (11 references) (LRW)