Describes the Taffs Pit simulation game, which sets up a meeting between acting and production staff within an invented soap opera program with students role playing and critically observing, and then links to general themes of communication analysis. The simulation's design, role playing, and criticisms of the game are discussed. (MBR)

For those researchers who are also concerned with the quality of their teaching, this article describes a procedure for incorporating students as part of a research team and illustrates this procedure with a study designed to analyze conflict in interpersonal relationships. (PD)

Surveys communications theory and discusses its application to educational organizations. Topics examined include definitions of communication, the evolution of communication models, concepts of language and semantics, interpersonal communication, and organizational communication. Finally, analytic techniques and conceptual frameworks are…

This paper seeks to integrate some ideas from family systems theory and attachment theory within a theory of public opinion and social movement. Citing the classic "The Authoritarian Personality," the paper states that the first authorities children know, their parents or other caregivers, shape children's attitudes toward all…

To negotiate a balance between an ideological concern for society's historical-economic development and an understanding of the individual's need for a sense of self-realization, social theory researchers should look to B. Dervin's "gap theory model" of communication. Adapted from Kenneth Burke, it offers a dynamic means of understanding…

This paper explores and attempts to answer some of the fundamental questions and challenges brought against organizational communication scholars who follow the critical tradition. Specifically addressed in the paper are the following issues: (1) the vocabulary of critical theory; (2) assumptions and goals of critical theory; (3) critical theory…

Although a large body of research exists regarding the construct of "socialization," scholars have no universally accepted definition of this construct. Additionally, scholars have used the term to describe several different components of both structural and communication dynamics without agreeing upon a metaphor or general acceptance of…

Concerned with imprecision in researchers' use of the word, "interpretive," this report draws from the work of Max Weber to describe the characteristics of an interpretive science of organizational communication and then briefly lists some advantages of following the interpretive approach. First examining the role of subjective meaning…

Triangulation, the combination of methodologies in the study of the same phenomenon, can be used to address a number of concerns arising in organizational communication research. This approach was used in a study of organizational culture by employing qualitative interview research to help interpret or place in context the results of statistical…

To explore the relationships among three sets of variables--social status, communication, and energy conserving behavior--405 respondents from a highly educated, upper income, largely white collar community and 333 respondents from a predominantly lower-middle and working class city were interviewed over the telephone. Questions were designed to…

Analysis of speech communication studies reveals a number of themes in the arts. A central concern in studies dealing with oral interpretation is what should be the focus in the oral interpretive act. The shifting priorities parallel the shift in emphases occurring in speech communication as a whole: performer/delivery; text/message;…

Communication technology (CT), which involves the use of computers in private and group communication, has had a major impact on theory and research in organizational communication over the past 30 years. From the 1950s to the early 1970s, mainframe computers were seen as managerial tools in creating more centralized organizational structures.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between young children's sociometric status and their communication patterns. A total of 43 middle class children enrolled in three preschool classes were asked to select three children they liked to play with (measure of social acceptance) and three they did not like to play with (measure…

A study investigated the influence of various information sources on graduate students' communicative, social, and academic expectations. Specifically, the study examined whether (1) those students who received preentry information about a university from an informal source would perceive that more of their expectations were met than would those…

Political analysts have regarded the interview of former President Gerald Ford by newsman Walter Cronkite at the 1980 Republican National Convention as important in determining the final party slate, but they have been unable to explain Ford's politically dangerous openness in that interview. The interview and the events leading up to it were…