In 1972 Ernest Bormann and his students were in the process of developing and applying what was later called "fantasy theme analysis" to various kinds of communication including the political campaign communication of 1972. Fantasy theme methodology ultimately developed into "Symbolic Convergence Theory," which has generated a…

An audio stimulus activity involves listening to a taped narrative and then responding to several questions. Narratives can be tailored to accommodate their varied audiences, since audiences are more "tuned in" when they are participating in activities to which they can relate. As a group project, students in a listening course at the…

A study was conducted to determine the place of cable in the lives of subscribers and its perception among nonsubscribers. Subjects, 251 subscribers and 246 nonsubscribers in a northeastern city midway in the process of cable diffusion, responded to a number of questions concerning their recreational activities, sources of information about cable,…

Using James Britton's model of discourse as a touchstone, this paper develops a theoretical base for writing instruction in adult literacy programs. The paper explores writing from an interactionist perspective that views writing as a complex recursive process in which the writer builds meaning with a text according to the purposes for writing,…

To assess the impact of Programming in the Arts (PITA), a funding category of the National Endowment for the Arts, personal interviews were conducted with 225 individuals in 13 cities, and archival material (e.g., project proposals and final reports) and secondary data sources (e.g., Nielsen ratings) were analyzed. PITA supports television, film,…

The world's appetite for the development of more television programs is constantly on the rise. Yet the manner in which television programs are produced for international viewers is still casual and often careless. Neither the message nor the way in which the medium shapes the message take into account the basic cultural barriers that cause…

This brochure discusses why and when to tell stories and tales and where to find them and offers hints on how to tell them well. The brochure also describes storytelling activities that are especially fun for the whole family and others that spin off into reading and writing. (KEH)

This handbook focuses on the use of 35mm slides for audiovisual presentations, particularly as an alternative to the more expensive and harder to produce medium of video. Its point of reference is creating slide shows about experiences in the Peace Corps; however, recommendations offered about both basic production procedures and enhancements are…

A study investigated audience news comprehension, focusing on objective knowledge questions measuring "acquaintance with" as contrasted to "knowledge of" as indexed by cognitive complexity and the frames of cognitive structure. A single continuing story--the Tax Reform bill that was moving through the United States Congress at…

This case study examined one advanced undergraduate student's efforts to write on similar topics for three different audiences--an advanced composition class, a history of Western philosophy class, and a district meeting of Pi Alpha Theta. Initially the student was juggling the demands of writing research papers for her two courses, and the third…

A composition teacher's suggestion to students to read personal compositions to others and to act on their reactions took on new meaning when the teacher read his own works to a writer's group. The teacher then began to realize the real implications of this method for writing instruction. Student reactions to their classmates' compositions can…

To shift the focus away from the writing instructor as the primary audience for written compositions, these writing assignments address the issue of audience directly. The assignments include the following: (1) select a magazine and analyze its audience; (2) compose a letter to the editor; (3) write an article for the selected magazine about an…

Discussions of audience, such as those by Russell Long, Carol Berkenkotter, David Park, Lisa Ede, and Andrea Lunsford, most often do not utilize the research by speech rhetoricians to whom the question of audience has always been central. Chaim Perelman's conception of the "universal audience" and traditional, speech-oriented rhetoric…

Students can be introduced to reader-writer relationships with the print world they recognize as most friendly, magazines. Comments concerning the wide range of magazines and the specificity of an individual magazine's audience should arise naturally. Teachers might ask their students to discover what textual features led to their definitions of…

To instruct journalism/mass communication students in the use of quantitative research skills, a case study guided students through scientifically designed readership studies of three trade magazine audiences. The readership studies surveyed students for three consecutive years at a large midwestern university to compare characteristics of readers…