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During Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile (1973-90), several human rights nongovernmental organizations (HRNGOs) meticulously documented thousands of human rights abuses. (1) Despite this overwhelming proof of systematic, state-sponsored terrorism, the [...]

CLAMs vs. Enthymemes: Recognizing Rhetoric in the Disciplines. Elizabeth G. Allan, Oakland University, Department of Writing & Rhetoric Like reading and writing, rhetoric is an essential, but often invisible, component [...]

Windows make up most of the north wall of my front room, old-style windows broken up into 12 X 9 inch panes. Because my house rests on a part of [...]

This qualitative study of 38 adoptive U.S. mothers of children from Asia examines how communication technologies have been used in international adoption and adoptive mothering. In the interviews mothers described how photographs, videos, audio recordings, and the Internet play important roles in the process of adoption, the formation of adoptive motherhood, the 'doing' of adoptive mothering, and in the development of the adopted child's sense of self. The Internet in recent years has come to play an increasing role in complimenting earlier communication technologies through allowing online mothers to rapidly connect to the experiences of other adoptive mothers and to access the resources of various useful websites and online support groups. KEYWORDS adoptive family, identity, information and communication technology (ICT), international adoption, Internet, motherhood/mothering, photography DOI: 10.1080/01494920903224376

This study explores how Turkish transnational families use communication technology to maintain connections across oceans. Its findings are drawn from a larger study that examined how transnational families maintain intergenerational relationships over distance and time. A grounded theory approach was used to conduct and analyze interviews with 30 Turkish immigrants living in the Midwest region of the United States. Results pertaining to the use of communication technology demonstrate that Turkish transnational families use a variety of communication strategies to maintain family relations. Specifically, they indicate that (1) telephone calls are crucial in facilitating communication; (2) e-mail facilitates communication, particularly between the younger generations; and (3) web-cams are used relatively infrequently. Each of these themes is discussed, and implications for future research are presented. KEYWORDS communication technology, interpersonal communication, transnational families, Turkish immigrants DOI: 10.1080/01494920903224392

The social impact of rapidly evolving information and communication technologies has become the focus of research across many disciplines. Although family scientists recognize the importance of contributing to the discourse, few studies have applied a family theoretical perspective. This article introduces a sociotechnological family conceptual model that organizes existing research and suggests areas for future study and intervention. The model uses an ecological approach and bidirectional conceptualization that acknowledges both the effect of multifunctional technologies, such as cellular phones or personal computers, on and the influence of familial, extrafamilial, and individual characteristics on how those technologies are incorporated within the family context. The Perceived Impact of Home Computer Use on Family Relationships study is used to illustrate how the sociotechnological model advances understanding of the influence information and communication technology has on family life. KEYWORDS cellular phones, communication, computer, conceptual model, family life, family process, internet, technology DOI: 10.1080/01494920903224194

The development and proliferation of new information and communication technologies has generated some profound claims about the erasure of place. Whilst these claims have continued political and policy resonance, they are increasingly challenged in sociological debate, which emphasizes the persistence of the local. Following this lead, our article explores relations between technology and place. We develop our understanding through engagement with Science and Technology Studies, Actor Network Theory and geographical conceptualizations of place. Our argument is worked through a new empirical study of telemedicine, where new technologies are applied precisely to overcome place. Our analysis is that, on the contrary, empirical outcomes are legible only through the lens of place. This has important policy implications and broader implications for thinking about technology in contemporary debates about globalization. KEY WORDS globalization / information and communication technologies / midwifery / Norway / place

When the soft drink behemoth and branding superpower Coca-Cola decided to open up its market to a fifth of the world's population in China near the end of the 1920s, [...]

Although many Americans consider religion important in their everyday lives, most feel uncomfortable when confronted with issues concerning religion and faith. The present study focused on the relational messages and contextual factors related to comfort levels in religious conversations. Using Burgoon and Hale's (1984, 1987) relational topoi, it was hypothesized that messages of intimacy and composure would relate positively to comfort levels in religious conversations, whereas messages of dominance and formality would relate negatively to comfort levels. These hypotheses received support. Furthermore, contextual factors such as perceived religious similarity and relational closeness were both positively associated with comfort levels. A discriminant analysis of these variables revealed that relational messages, specifically affection/involvement, receptivity/trust, and dominance, were the strongest predictors whether participants perceived a conversation as comfortable or uncomfortable.

In the early twentieth century, there was a widespread belief that the mass media could exert powerful effects on people, especially when used for propaganda purposes. Theorists back then discussed [...]

The role of communication in public administration has been emphasized over time in public administration theory. Nonetheless, communication-with the exception of political communication-has been neglected in scholarship. Garnett's performance predicament posits the difficulty of showing linkages between communication and performance. This paper explores the role that communication plays in achieving organizational performance through a review of research that bears on communication's direct and indirect influences on performance. The primary thrust is communication's indirect role in achieving performance by mediating or moderating the effects of organizational culture on performance, thereby adding another perspective on the cultureuperformance relationship. Adapting the typology of Zammuto and Krakower, two types of organizational culture-rule-oriented culture and mission-oriented culture-are examined to explore how the relationship between organizational culture and organizational performance is influenced by communication. The analysis supports the claim that communication acts as a meta-mechanism for shaping and imparting culture in mission-oriented organizational cultures, thereby influencing performance. In particular, task orientation, feedback, and upward communication have positive effects on perceived organizational performance in mission-oriented organizations but potentially negative effects on performance in rule-oriented cultures.

A study examines the professed social transformative capabilities of various information and communications technology (ICT)-based community projects in rural India. The focus is on the role of women in ICT and the ability of the projects to act as caste equalizers.

The literature on community information (CI) and information and referral (I&R) reveals the importance of understanding the information behaviour of individuals, the connecting role of information in a community and [...]

Abstract Since 'culture' has become an essential category in trying to explain the post-1989 world, a new wave of essentialist thinking has emerged in the social sciences, including media studies. [...]

Purpose: To explore the utility of time-interval analysis for documenting the reliability of coding social communication performance of children in classroom settings. Of particular interest was finding a method for determining whether independent observers could reliably judge both occurrence and duration of ongoing behavioral dimensions for describing social communication performance. Method: Four coders participated in this study. They observed and independently coded 6 social communication behavioral dimensions using handheld computers. The dimensions were mutually exclusive and accounted for all verbal and nonverbal productions during a specified time frame. The technology allowed for coding frequency and duration for each entered code. Data were collected from 20 different 2-min video segments of children in kindergarten through 3rd-grade classrooms. Data were analyzed for interobserver and intraobserver agreements using time-interval sorting and Cohen's kappa. Further, interval size and total observation length were manipulated to determine their influence on reliability. Results: The data revealed interval sorting and kappa to be a suitable method for examining reliability of occurrence and duration of ongoing social communication behavioral dimensions. Nearly all comparisons yielded medium to large kappa values; interval size and length of observation minimally affected results. Implications: The analysis procedure described in this research solves a challenge in reliability: comparing coding by independent observers of both occurrence and duration of behaviors. Results indicate the utility of a new coding taxonomy and technology for application in online observations of social communication in a classroom setting. KEY WORDS: research design, observation, behavioral assessment, Social communication is a core area of clinical research and practice in child language disorders. From a measurement perspective, social communication is ideally explored using authentic, real-time observation and coding [...]

The performances of everyday experience take place in a variety of other locations, domestic and corporate, urban and rural. Moreover, the role of the audience, and the individuals within it, is not constant across all performances, nor is it fixed within discrete performances: it has an inherent potential for fluidity. This article considers the author's experience of this fluidity as a member of a late-modern audience during two performances of psychic mediumship. It describes them, drawing on narration provided by the author's field notes, and analyses them through theoretical discourses, provided by the discipline of performance studies. It goes on to consider how post-modern, or for the purpose of this paper, late-modern audiences, are connected to their modern antecedents. The term ‘late-modern’ is used as opposed to ‘post-modern’, because the paper sets out to explore contemporary society’s ongoing continuity with its past, rather than its disjuncture. A late-modern focus suggests a society that is a development of what has gone before rather than a reaction against it—as one aspect of post-modern theory might propose. And, with this connection in mind, the paper explores a preoccupation attributed to modern society, an emergent sense of self-identity and self-consciousness that was synchronic with the ‘golden age’ of spiritualism (1880–1914). It considers this modern self-awareness in relationship to an examination of the role of the late-modern audience at contemporary demonstrations of psychic mediumship. It focuses on how the performance conditions of these events stimulate the audience’s imagination and beliefs and consequently affect their sense of self.

While service learning in communication appears to be gaining in acceptance, few previous empirical studies examine changes in its availability and implementation over time. The present study compared a 1995 (Sellnow & Oster, 1997) and a 2001 survey of department chairs to reveal how service learning fared in communication departments. The survey indicated increases in both the number of communication studies majors and the number of students participating in service learning. Fewer departments appeared to be diligent about providing essential elements of service learning such as finding meaningful service and requiring structured reflection. The survey uncovered perceived benefits to students, including communication skills believed to be improved through service learning. Across the six year span, multicultural awareness and intercultural skills were increasingly associated with service learning. Keywords: service learning; communication studies curriculum; higher education trends

Twelve married couples court-ordered to attend a violence reduction treatment program completed self-report measures of anger, social problem-solving skills, and strategies employed for dealing with high-conflict situations. They were subsequently videotaped while discussing 3 different scenarios. Three raters independently coded the videotapes for the use of effective and ineffective communication strategies used by the participants. Aggregate reliability estimates were acceptable. No gender-based differences were found on the self-report measures or the communication skill ratings. When couples discussed low-conflict situations use of effective skills exceeded use of ineffective skills, and when couples discussed high-conflict problems use of ineffective skills exceeded use of effective skills. Implications for treatment of spousal assault are presented. KEY WORDS: domestic violence; marital interaction; communication skills., Domestic violence continues to remain a serious health concern in the United States as we begin the new millenium. In particular, documentation reveals a high incidence of spousal assault and [...]

The effects of restricted capacity of mediated communication to convey social cues, independent of other differences between media, based on some assumptions, are examined. The effect of limited capacity on the selecting of collaboration partners, is also discussed.

Research suggests that affirming, emotion-focused expressions of comfort effectively provide social support. However, little research has examined whether preferred approaches to providing support differ as a function of culture and, if so, why. This study sought to document, for both the Barbee and Cunningham typology of support behaviors and the Burleson hierarchy of comforting messages, whether there are cultural differences in preferred approaches to emotional support provision and, if so, what factors might account for these differences. Participants completed assessments of (a) the appropriateness of using solace, solve, dismiss, and escape behaviors, (b) the perceived sensitivity of comforting messages varying in degree of person centeredness, (c) interaction goal orientation, (d) the value placed on skill in comforting, and (e) collectivist and individualist values. Analyses indicated there were significant cultural differences in evaluations of support behaviors and that these differences were partially mediated by interaction goals and value orientations. Keywords: cross-cultural communication; comforting; emotional support; collectivism; individualism; interaction goals; value orientations

The authors studied 83 kindergarten through 6th-grade children to determine the effectiveness of a theoretically based active mediation strategy for countering the harmful portrayal of gender-stereotyped television programs. One feature of this strategy was its effectiveness upon children who are not monitored by their parents.

The authors of this article defines terms related to global communication and foreign policy that began in the 20th century, in order to more clearly discuss the relationship between these two concepts. This article specifically discusses: 'The CNN effect'; Real-time policy; International political brokerage; and Media diplomacy.

A series of nine simulations with the Dual Route Cascaded (DRC) model (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001) investigated neighbourhood density (N) effects in nonword and word naming. Two main finding emerged from this work. First, when naming nonwords there are two loci for the effect of N in the model, contrary to Coltheart et al.'s single locus explanation of what the model is doing. The early N effect involves interactive activation between the orthographic lexicon and the letter units such that high N facilitates letter identification, which in turn affects the nonlexical route. The late N effect arises from activation in the orthographic lexicon that feeds forward to the phonological lexicon and primes phonemes in the phoneme system. Second, when naming words the presence/absence of an effect of N on the Letter Units through feedback from the lexical level depends on the parameter settings. Implications and suggestions for future directions are made.

Humor literature can be split into two broad categories: (a) why individuals use humor (motivationally/psychologically) and (b) the function humor has within a social setting on society (sociologically). This paper argues that a communicative approach can be used as a connection between the psychological and sociological studies of humor. A new model is put forth as an area for future research in organizational communication that expands the humor process originally proposed in the sociological case study literature.

406 Anglo-American, Italian-American, and Italian (Northern and Southern Italy) students were asked to evaluate past conversations with same-age peers, i.e., 17 to 30 years, and older adults, i.e., 65 years and older. While according older adults more deference, all cultural groups perceived older adults as more rigid and nonaccommodating than younger adults. Exchanges with older adults were reported as having more negative affect than were those with other young adults, and were also more likely to be avoided.

Can dialogue make real impact on the state of affairs in the real world, or is it a pastime of the polite societies or a lullaby useful for sending gullible grown-ups into 'sleep'? In the present paper, following a two-tier analysis of the notion of dialogue, as 'shared exploration towards greater understanding, connection, or possibility,' and as a product of our 'collective intentionality,' I shall develop a bifurcated argument. Against the cynic pundits, who preach that realpolitik and not dialogue is the name of the game in our daily interactions with each other, I shall argue that in an increasingly pluralistic world, dialogue is a powerful and indispensable means for making desirable changes. Similarly, against the over-enthusiastic optimists who believe that dialogue provides us with a magical wand, I shall argue that dialogue is as good as we can make it: dialogue cannot work miracles in a vacuum of collective will. The upshot of my argument is that firstly, dialogue is an indicator of the rationality and maturity of the social actors: the more rational the social actors the more ubiquitous and effective the dialogue and vice versa. And secondly, although, dialogue itself may lead to frustration or even violence, it is the absence of dialogue that poses the greatest danger for the future of mankind.

THANK YOU FOR THE opportunity to share several thoughts about our discipline. Using last year's theme of 'translation practices,' I would like to take you on a journey to consider [...]

The 'But you are free of ...' technique is a compliance procedure which solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling him that he is free to accept or to refuse the request. This semantic evocation leads to increased compliance with the request. A new evaluation of the generality of this technique was tested in an experiment in which subjects received an anonymous electronic mail which asked them to consult the site of a humanitarian association for children. Analysis showed that, when the semantic evocation of freedom is included in the message, a higher compliance rate was observed than in a situation in which this evocation was omitted.

Recent initiatives by the New Labour administration have brought together the role of information and communication technologies and regeneration. Concerns about the digital divide and social exclusion have been considered in the context of neighbourhood renewal and access to mainstream services, such as education, training and employment. This article asks the question of whether information and communication technologies (ICT) can really support regeneration. Despite a growing interest in this field, three aspects are raised that have rarely been considered. The first concerns the association between ICT and regeneration. It is argued that the relationship between the two is vague and that value-laden judgements lie behind the idea of technology addressing complex matters of regeneration. The second related point is about the evidence base for evaluating local ICT initiatives. It is suggested here that the notion of ICT providing a net benefit for communities is unsubstantiated. This leads to the third poin t, that the political-administrative arrangements of and within ICT projects require serious attention. The article is likely to be of interest to academics and practitioners alike who are concerned with the application and local administration of ICT projects in 'poorer' neighbourhoods. Regeneration ICT communities Technology

Research reveals that adult female squirrel monkeys respond to unfamiliar chucks, even though never heard before, if the sound from the unfamiliar chucks is similar in acoustic structure to that of familiar set of chucks from the same social group.