This research focuses on the current role of mapping practices in communicating climate change in the United States. This includes maps used in monitoring climate change, projecting its potential impacts, and identifying potential adaptation strategies at particular scales. Since few, if any, studies have been done specifically on mapping…

Communication is an important input in development. The role of communication is socio-economic and cultural development at national and international levels. Development is considered an important component of progress. The progressive change is described as alterations in awareness, motivation and participation of the individuals. With the…

Despite considerable research on teaching and learning in higher education, the relationship between university teachers' and students' understandings of the same teaching-learning events has not been a focus. This exploratory qualitative study used individual interviews to investigate the role of conceptions of teaching, learning and knowledge in…

Explains the concepts of spectator positioning, supplement (as defined by Jacques Derrida), and plenitude in relation to the study of woman's films, in general, and the film "Committed" (1984), in particular. Considers how the film's indirect mode of public address disturbs conventional gender alignments and the distinction between…

Tom Metzger and his white supremacist movement, the White Aryan Resistance, attempt to build support with working class whites and youth to create white working class solidarity and racial separation. Metzger uses videotapes as one of the methods of bringing his racist and conspiratorial message to his audience. One such vehicle is "Race and…

Examines what caused the decline and demise of the Dallas Motion Picture Classification Board (which rated films as to objectionable content) and with it the idea of the public ordering of motion picture content. Uses "Viva Maria" and "The Front Page" as case studies. (PA)

Investigates questions of what the New London Group calls "multiliteracies." Looks carefully at various texts associated with the television show "Felicity" and considers what they have to say about contemporary popular literacies. Considers how "Felicity" acts as a kind of core sample, extracted from the broader soil…

Offers a case study of a child who used school writing activities to perform rather than simply to communicate. Finds that, although the child's language resources contributed greatly to his success with written language, they did not always fit comfortably into the writing workshop used in his classroom. (PRA)

Describes how a high school journalism teacher approached the problem of building minority participation in high school journalism as a public relations campaign, identifying the publics involved (students and school administration) and addressing their interests and needs. (SR)

Describes how data displays can be classified into four types: conventional, perceptual, informational, and aesthetic. Argues that conflicts among the standards can be resolved by allowing the rhetorical situation to guide the design process. Explores a case in information design to show how the rhetorical situation shapes data displays, telling…

Student writing performance has not appreciably improved in the past decade. While there is evidence that teachers assign more writing than in the past, performance has not kept pace. Three urban schools that experienced significant improvements in students' writing achievement were studied. To glean ideas and examples, the authors observed…

To help business writers and writing teachers think more specifically about problems of writing collaboration, a study examined and analyzed a group writing project in the Auldouest Insurance Company (pseudonym) Department of Corporate Communication. The collaborative writing of the two page executive letter of the company's annual report involved…

During a six-month naturalistic study, the author conducted an ethnographic examination of a seventh grade hypermedia unit. Beginning with the global question, "In what ways are computers used to support the education of middle school students?" the researcher coded and analyzed observations, interviews and projects. Three themes emerged: the…

Presents a 30-month case study of how one business writer made decisions concerning audience. Suggests that audience theory does not adequately describe the cognitive and social decisions writers make in real-world professional contexts, with intrinsic internal factors such as writer's creditability, financial rewards, and promotions affecting…

Presents a case study of one six-year-old that suggests that e-mail messages foster different skills and conventions than does print-based letter writing. Hopes to illuminate the writing practices children might develop as they engage in e-mail communication. (SG)