Provides a descriptive diagnosis of the state of the communication discipline. Concludes that the trends are symptomatic of a field moving toward greater scholarly maturity and respectability. (PD)

Discusses broad areas that deserve future scholarly inquiry by communication researchers: (1) the interrelatedness of communicative contexts, (2) the serial nature of symbolic exchanges, and (3) barriers to conducting ecologically valid communication research. (PD)

An assumptive, theoretical, and empirical foundation for the development of a formal dissemination model to apply to the introduction of information about educational accountability programs is set forth. If a dissemination model is to be effective, the fundamental assumptions underlying it must be spelled out explicitly. Existing communication…

Many graduate programs in communication are plagued by "schizophrenia": a wish for relevance to today's problems on the one hand and an allegiance to objective research on the other. Rather than scrapping traditional practices, graduate programs should continue to emphasize the training of research scholars. The research tradition has…

Describes the structure and operations of the graduate student research training teams at Michigan State University. Considers advantages of this approach, including the opportunity to pursue programmatic research and the continuity provided by having first-, second-, and third-year students on a team. Discusses limitations of the concept. (JMF)

The authors employ earlier research as a springboard from which to further investigate the relative resistance to counterpropaganda of attitude change resulting from counterattitudinal advocacy and from passive exposure to a persuasive message. Two hundred and twenty-six undergraduate students enrolled in summer session courses in sociology,…

This study extended previous research based on an aversive consequences interpretation of counterattitudinal advocacy effects by hypothesizing that persons who prepare counterattitudinal messages for an ostensibly familiar audience will report greater attitude change than persons who prepare messages for an unfamiliar audience. (Editor)

Reviews the progress of communication research within two decades. Notes the increasing reliance on theory, the greater emphasis on programmatic research, and the attempts to fit methods to particular research objectives. These advances, along with an increasing number of capable researchers, have heightened the credibility of communication…

Some systematic procedures are suggested that can be utilized by states as they move toward the development of educational accountability programs. Each of the steps outlined: (1) identification of the appropriate message sources, (2) specification of communication objectives, (3) analysis of relevant publics, (4) determination of particular…

This study tested two primary hypotheses concerning the effects of mispronunciation on the ratings of source credibility. First, as the number of mispronunciations presented by a speaker increases, audience ratings of source credibility will decrease. Second, the effects hypothesized in the first statement will be stronger for audiences at a more…