Describes a 7-year longitudinal study of drama at Arizona State University that involved 30 participants who started the study as kindergartners. Focuses on final exit interviews with selected participants. Concludes that theater is necessary for some children and that theater may become more valuable if children can be convinced of the personal…

Presents generalizations about the editing process in a governmental agency. Suggests that editing is a complex, meaning-making process. Notes that the three vary greatly in their readiness to use their personal authority in interpreting the audience's needs. Suggests that editors gain authority by assuming the role of language specialists and by…

Examines the academic reputation of reference materials and their role in education. Suggests that reference writing differs from academic writing in the target audience and recency of information. Indicates that reference writing has low status among academic circles despite the great value it carries for society as a whole. (MAB)

A survey of 801 participants in aging service programs and American Association of Retired Persons chapters identified television and newspapers as preferred information channels; radio, magazines, and professionals were least preferred. Education, age, income, and housing status related to preference. Hard-to-reach populations tended to have less…

Finds that children's ethnicity and gender, and possibly the socio-cultural composition of the school population, are variables that influence how characters are perceived and themes extracted from a theater event. (SR)

Argues that effects of emotional visuals accompanying television news broadcasts are reflected not in the exact recall of text but through specific kinds of errors in recall and the relation of these errors to certain parts of the item. (SR)

Finds that facts from news stories presented by newspaper or computer screen were recalled at a significantly higher level than were facts from the same stories when presented via radio or television. (SR)

Suggests that the use of embedded stories in D'Arcy McNickle's novel "The Surrounded" illustrates an attitude toward storytelling and that studying aspects of this attitude can provide students with tools for encountering other Native literary works. (SV)

Explores how teachers can help their students look for meaning in the visual media. Presents the theory that students object to looking for meaning in certain forms of visual media, because they dislike having their world complicated with unnecessary interpretive searching. Discusses the results of several class exercises adapted from David…

Examines the relative power of visual, audio, and audiovisual television messages on people's understanding of political issues. Shows that audio alone is just as effective as a combined audio and visual presentation for conveying information. Shows little difference between the effective responses to audio and video channels. (SR)

Maintains that individuals rely on various elements to structure activities that reflect various intersections between thinking and feeling. Intersections arise because events are social processes that require interweaving of scripts, roles, physical setting, audience characteristics, and other features derived from dramatic metaphors. (Author/BB)

Describes how a class of seventh graders learned to use diplomacy and effective interpersonal communication to let their teachers know how they feel. (PRA)

Examines 855 documents relevant to library and information science (LIS) and categorizes them according to whether they were written by persons inside or outside LIS and whether they were published inside or outside the LIS literature. Author affiliation, document type, audience, and subject content are covered. (50 references) (KRN)

Argues that communication scholars must better match content with readership/viewership because audience members can read or view widely different aspects of a particular medium on any given day. Argues that the field will not progress far unless communication scholars develop better measures and locate better fits between media content and…

Explores the psychological origins of media gratification by examining how pertinent psychological variables help explain television viewing motivation. Finds that parasocial interaction, anxiety, creativity, sensation seeking's disinhibition dimension, and television affinity and exposure, helped to predict viewing motivation. (PRA)