Investigates speech norms in the United States by determining the effects of three American regional dialects on the attitudes towards speakers held by audience members from the same three regions. Includes selected dialects represented by General American, Appalachian, and Bostonian dialects. (MH)

Describes a study of 301 undergraduates which was designed to determine their motives for watching soap operas. Responses to a questionnaire were analyzed to determine perceived gratifications and consequences of viewing. Convergence of motives was studied, and the diversity of motives and resultant implications for subgroup analyses were also…

Examines the way in which places are presented or portrayed by the various media. Discusses the concepts of place, medium and image, portrayer, and audience, stating that teachers must understand these concepts to provide students with a comprehensive view of the world's places. (GEA)

Examines the impact of attempts to reduce uncertainty about audience performance expectations on anticipatory audience anxiety. Reports that successful models presented to clarify audience performance expectations were ineffective in reducing anticipatory audience anxiety. (MM)

Uses fantasy theme analysis to examine Norman Lear's series "a.k.a. Pablo." Develops an argument demonstrating how a rhetorical vision and its concomitant group consciousness emerged and was sustained throughout preproduction research and collaboration, and how it disintegrated when dramatized first in scripts and then in performance.…

Explores contradictory purposes for writing instruction: the business world wants writers to obtain predetermined results, yet composition theorists see writing as a way to help students learn about themselves. Suggests teachers help students analyze their potential professions by focusing on the way writing invents those professions. (MS)

Indicates that (1) affinity, selectivity, and involvement predicted intentionality; (2) pass time motives, perceived realism, and reduced intentionality predicted nonselectivity; (3) pass time motives and reduced affinity predicted distractions; (4) information and nonentertainment motives, perceived realism, and intentionality predicted…

Claims that the decline in attendance at the British cinema since World War II is not explained either by the lack of good films or by the coming of television, but by both changing demographics and significant shifts in the social construction of leisure. (JD)

Concludes that people who are older, more educated, and have a high surveillance need are more likely to be newspaper subscribers than are other types of people. (FL)

Studies the fate of scientific observations as they pass from original reports intended for scientific peers into popular accounts aimed at a general audience. (FL)

Describes a study of children's use of radio over the grade school years. Documents patterns of radio use and lists several categories of reasons offered by children for their use of the radio. (MS)

Examines the determinants and consequences of the Korean "Family Reunion Program" aired in June 1983. Compares the medium and audience involved to current definitions of media events. (MS)

Howe describes the creative writer's responsibility as writing from his or her own inner person or truest self to the inner person of the reader. (CRH)

Urges that beginning writers be shown that by maintaining a consistent and appropriate rhetorical stance they not only signal their own role but also indicate the proper role for the audience to play. (MM)

Compares what 17 early technical writing textbooks have to say about style and audience with three modern texts. Concludes that the field of technical writing has not progressed very far in these two areas and calls for an increased emphasis on rhetorical invention, audience analysis, and style selection. (FL)