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A randomly assigned sample of 376 college students responded to a survey involving a between-subjects 2 × 3 experiment designed to assess the impact of age (older versus younger) and tattoo status (i.e., no tattoo, feminine tattoo, or masculine tattoo) on three dependent measures: credibility, attractiveness, and promiscuity. Older and younger women are perceived differently depending on tattoo status. Not wearing a tattoo may lead to a more favorable perception of older women than wearing one, but wearing a feminine tattoo may engender a more favorable impression of older women than having a masculine tattoo. But not having a tattoo may not be as helpful for the perception of younger women as it is for older women. Also, while younger women may be rewarded for gender role transgression with respect to tattoo status, this is not so for older women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-visits Hall's foundational writing concerning Arabs and olfaction made in the book The Hidden Dimension. In light of an historical climate demanding a better understanding of the Arab world and the social biases uniquely associated with the sense of smell, this article seeks to rectify misconceptions promulgated in intercultural communication pedagogy. Hall's claims are contrasted with recent interview data. The implications of this research for (a) intercultural communication instructors, (b) olfaction and culture, (c) relationships between Americans and Arabs/Arab Americans, and (d) future research are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lists the top-ranking doctorate-granting institutions in communication studies in the United States. Combination of the National Communication Association and International Communication Association awards from 1994 to 1998; Use of the rankings to assess the programs of particular doctoral institutions.

A postmodernist perspective is suggested as more appropriate than a modernist perspective for purposes of examining cross-cultural communication between African societies and the United States. By assuming a single universal truth and an instrumentalist view of communication, a modernist perspective portrays this process ineffectively as a one-way process of positive influence with the United States as benefactor while African societies are beneficiaries. However, a postmodernist perspective assumes multiple truths or realities and a constitutive view of communication, permitting two major conclusions: (1) cross-cultural communication between African cultures and the United States may have mutual positive influence, and (2) U.S. society can benefit from the appropriation of even more aspects of African cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have generally ignored the role of communication in academic leadership as it relates to chair-faculty relationships. A turning point analysis was employed to examine what types of communicative events influence the construction, maintenance, and alteration of chair-faculty relationships. Seven types of turning point were discovered: (1) performance evaluation, (2) recognition, (3) support, (4) trustworthiness, (5) job interference, (6) outside interaction, and (7J interpersonal discussion. Trustworthiness turning points promoted the greatest negative change in faculty perceptions of the chair-faculty relationship and significantly decreased the amount of personal information a faculty member would share with the department chair. Subsequent analysis revealed that department chairs pursuing benevolent goals (e.g. helping socialize the faculty member regarding department expectations) were perceived as moving the chair-faculty relationship in more positive directions while department chairs pursuing impersonal or selfish goals (e.g. lying to the faculty member in order to gain information) were perceived as moving the chair-faculty relationship in negative directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]