Considers the question: "Can communication research produce knowledge through which we can learn to understand and to change reality?" Concludes that communication research is served better with more "art" than with more "science." (PD)

Responds to a critique of an article by the authors appearing in a previous issue of this journal (v38 n3). Argues against communication as symbolic representation. Emphasizes their original intent to redefine communication as the production of culture, in the form of a historico-critical inquiry into the institutionalization of communication…

States that beliefs about the causes and responsibility for disease are central to cultural understandings of the human condition. Explores how public communication influences such beliefs. Argues that attributions of responsibility are better understood rhetorically, as influencing attitudes and behavior. Discusses a model of public communication…

Contends that the trouble with communication research is fragmentation and too much low-quality and very little high-quality work. (PD)

Reviews the development of communication research in Hungary in the 1970s and the priorities for the 1980s. (PD)

Examines turnout of registered voters in a special vote-by-mail U.S. Senate election in which the Democratic candidate (Ron Wyden) pledged to stop using attack ads, and the Republican candidate (Gordon Smith) did not. Finds that only Republicans' participation fell, while Republicans, Independents, and Democrats who felt Wyden had lived up to his…

Discusses problems with the term "mass communication." Contends that mass communication research must include the study of public communication in the sense of finding out what people do with media and what are the problems of diffusing information or public knowledge. (PD)

Notes that if there is to be a new wave of exciting research on communications, it is likely to be on questions raised by the new electronic media. (PD)

Discusses commemoration as a means of closure. Examines the suppression of that impulse through two related events: the establishment of a Tomb of the Unknown for the Vietnam War, and Gerald Ford's abrupt shift of policy concerns as South Vietnam fell. (MS)

Describes the Experience Sampling Method, a quasi-naturalistic method that involves signaling research subjects at random times throughout the day, and asking them to report on the nature and quality of their experience. Discusses the method's applications and value in research topics in organizational settings; with mass and mediated…

Examines whether role assignments to television sets (assignments of particular content to particular screens) influence what viewers think about what they watch. Finds that designating TV sets for specialized functions or uses results in more positive evaluations of the content, even when the TV sets and programming are identical. (SR)

Finds that soap operas analyzed in 1994 contain more frequent sexual incidence on an hourly average, both within the same soaps analyzed a decade earlier and even more so on two additional very popular soaps. Shows that the more frequent sex centers on physical intercourse, primarily among partners not married to anyone; and sexual activity is…

Defines virtual reality as a particular type of experience (in terms of "presence" and "telepresence") rather than as a collection of hardware. Maintains that media technologies can be classified and studied in terms of vividness and interactivity, two attributes on which virtual reality ranks very high. (SR)

Suggests that artificial neural networks (ANNs) exhibit properties that promise usefulness for policy researchers. Notes that ANNs have found extensive use in areas once reserved for multivariate statistical programs such as regression and multiple classification analysis and are developing an extensive community of advocates for processing text…

Uses the idea of "framing" as a case study of scattered conceptualization across academic disciplines. Identifies and makes explicit various uses of "framing." Argues that the field of communication can develop a core of knowledge that could translate into research models contributing to social theory in the largest sense. (SR)