Reconstructs the social networks linking early personal computing pioneers in order to identify the social and political representations and images that defined these social networks. Describes the linkage between technical development and cultural representations, particularly those of the user, in the case of personal computers. (SR)

Argues that social structures, in the form of shared attitudes, values, beliefs, and identities, can emerge out of the spatially constrained nature of social interaction and influence. Discusses the processes that differentiate social space from both subjective psychological space and objective physical reality. (SR)

Presents results of experimental tests of Dynamic Social Impact Theory (DSIT) in which participants engaged in discussions over electronic mail. Finds support for the emergence of four group phenomena predicted by DSIT. Shows how, rewarded for being in the majority, individuals' choices resulted in the emergence of four forms of group level…

Describes Social Representation Theory (SRT), an important and controversial development in European social constructivism. Argues that, although SRT and Dynamic Social Impact Theory (DSIT) come from different research traditions, they are complementary. Maintains that DSIT goes further in providing a clear mechanism for how dialog creates…

Maintains that to study communication is to make arguments about the economic logic and cultural forms of social development. Discusses why the study of communication as a social force has converged at many points on an encompassing critique of contemporary capitalism. Maintains that the literature of social history will be of prime relevance in…

Suggests a method of measuring the impact of women's views on US public opinion. Social, political and educational issues are emphasized. (MH)

Analyzes newspaper accounts of the sociopolitical opposition encountered by the head of a state government agency forced to publicly apologize after attempting to control the external communication of an agency staff member with a reputation for organizational dissent. Discusses academic and applied implications of these findings for the emerging…

Proposes two theories which constitute an interactive and dynamical system from which public opinion may emerge and become organized: (1) a dynamic theory of cognitive impact specifying processes for resolving inconsistency within an individual's attitudinal structure; and (2) a cognitive-social theory of the structural organization of attitudes…

Shows how Dynamic Social Impact Theory (DSIT) and an evolutionary perspective offer new ways of understanding social representations through communication. Outlines the metatheoretical perspective that social representations emerge as structure in self-organizing systems. Explores ways in which DSIT might be further informed by the dynamic…

Argues that people are affected by the pervasive images of advertisers who use signs to imbue products with specific realities. Examines how people use this information about various consumer products in making judgments of other people. (MS)

Argues that research in environmental communication should look at communication-related linkages between society and the environment, and that biosocial theory presents a useful conceptual framework. Suggests five empirical generalizations about mass communication's possible roles in the interactions between people and the environment, drawn from…

Compares news content in China Central Television's National Network News and "People's Daily" newspaper for a one-month period in 1992 with content from 15 years ago. Suggests that news in China provides Chinese society and people with the baseline knowledge needed for the building of a forced consensus, the basis of Communist rule, and…

Examines the relationship between mass media and social change by studying women's magazine fiction in China before and after implementation of the Four Modernizations Policies in the late 1970s. Focuses on the relationship between representations of women and the shifting ideological landscape from a feminist perspective. Notes that old…