In the ever-changing landscape of educational practice and policy, educators oftentimes find it difficult to obtain adequate training and resources. This places a unique burden on education researchers to develop both content materials as well as professional development programs. The adoption and implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind…

Despite all intentions in the course of the Bologna Process and decades of investment into improving the social dimension, results in many national and international studies show that inequity remains stubbornly persistent, and that inequity based on socio-economic status, parental education, gender, country-of-origin, rural background and more…

This study investigates the tensions a teacher educator faces in facilitating a media literacy teacher education course at the university level. Teaching tensions are conceptualized as a three-tier framework. At the first level, tensions may arise in the selection and application of pedagogies associated with critical and new/21st century…

Discusses the agenda-setting research model and suggests that an extension of this model presents a relevant theory of social change. (MH)

One in a series of studies of experiments in new audiovisual techniques in Europe and the situations in some member countries, this paper traces the development of radio in Italy. Opposing views about radio broadcasting (public monopoly vs. freedom of broadcasting) are examined, and the various political and legal aspects of communications in…

The proposed form, content, and funding of South Africa's second television channel (TV2) are examined in this paper. Noting that the service is designed for the country's black majority population, the paper points out that it is nonetheless controlled by the white-dominated South African Broadcasting Corporation. Following a brief outline of the…

Assesses theoretical problems regarding mass media's role in the modernization of African countries. Draws a correlation between mass communication and economic, social, and political change. (Author/MW)

The purpose of this publication is to present the thinking of graduate and undergraduate students on contemporary issues, particularly those related to modern rhetoric and communication. The first section of this issue consists of articles on such topics as the current status of the Weathermen movement; the sexual revolution in America; a…

Critiques and studies have found the traditional two-step flow model of social influence inadequate to describe and explain relationships between interpersonal and mass communications during political campaigns. A study was undertaken to incorporate a wider range of variables pertinent to both kinds of political communication behaviors to redefine…

Although presented by the press as a new phenomenon, the presence of undocumented Mexican workers in the United States is deeply rooted in history. While current policies tend to view illegal immigration as a social problem, the phenomenon persists because it benefits, politically and economically, both Mexico and the U.S. (Author/GC)

This study examines the information sources and population characteristics that differentiate political opinion-leaders from nonleaders. A telephone poll of 339 subjects provided data indicating that political opinion leaders receive more information about candidates from all media, as well as through interpersonal communication, than do…

In order to bring the student's contemporary environment into the classroom for study and to avoid topicality, this book provides general principles by which to evaluate current media offerings, outlines the patterns from which media materials are cut for public consumption, and focuses the student's attention on the mass media themselves. Each of…

The role that time frame plays in the media agenda-setting process was studied by examining the single issue of civil rights over an extended period between 1954 and 1976. The public agenda was determined from 27 Gallup polls, conducted between 1954 and 1976, which asked respondents what they considered the most important issue facing the American…

The essays published in this collection were written in response to the basic question, "To what extent is the language of politics/advertising/psychotherapy/education/bureaucracy/etc. facilitating or impeding our chances of survival?" The general topic here is the contemporary use of language and the semantic environment in America, especially in…

The fourth in a series of annual volumes published by the International Communication Association, this yearbook provides reviews, overviews, and syntheses of developments in the evolution of the science of communication. Areas covered in this edition are: (1) theoretical perspectives, (2) developing study of communication around the world, (3)…