Presents a three-part narrative about ethnography. Describes an incident instrumental in bringing about the author's personal interest in ethnographic research; conveys a partial sense of the experience of the doing of ethnography; and discusses autoethnography as a response to some of the late 20th-century dilemmas of ethnographic inquiry. (SR)

States that arousal has become a central variable within much of communication research from deception to emotional communication. Describes a two-part study that explored the application of the "orienting response" to these interpersonal communication theories explaining violations of expectancies. Concludes that the orientation…

States that although Internet "gurus" advocate that users refrain from "flaming," in fact, flaming permeates the Internet. Explores the nature of flaming in its characteristics and forms as seen in academic discussion groups. Argues that flaming educates the ignorant, tames the uncouth, and promotes effective communication. (PA)

Examines family members' use of conflict styles within family triads in the launching stage of the family life cycle. Compares use of conflict style across family members. Indicates that most families use symmetrically integrative conflict styles--use of distributive or passive-indirect styles saw less openness of communication. Suggests an…

Finds that college-aged grandchildren used face-to-face and telephone communication more frequently with a grandparent than written media, but that all were used fairly frequently; communication using all media was more frequent when the grandparent or the grandchild initiated interaction as opposed to the parent; grandparent-initiated contact…

Explores the potential of complexity theory as a unifying theory in public relations, where scholars have recently raised problems involving flux, uncertainty, adaptiveness, and loss of control. Describes specific complexity-based methodologies and their potential for public relations studies. Offers an account of complexity theory, its…

Provides a contrastive test of three immediacy-exchange theories: expectancy violations theory; discrepancy arousal theory; and cognitive valence theory. States findings from opposite-sex friend dyads (one of whom was an undergraduate student) failed to find unequivocal support for a single theory. Suggests existing immediacy-exchange theories…

Examines several factors that are hypothesized to influence the perceptual congruence of organization members (extent to which members agree on their perceptions of the organization's social structure). Proposes that employees' congruence on the organization's social structure is influenced by similarities in formal structure, demographic…

Explores the discourse on working knowledge that subject matter experts use with technical communicators to represent work in organizations. Focuses on the narrative authority of speakers in the discourse process because participants constructing task representations bring distinct viewpoints to the documentation process. Studies imperative…

Describes heuristic-systematic information-processing model and risk perception--the two major conceptual areas of the analysis. Discusses the proposed model, describing the context of the data collections (public health communication involving cancer epidemiology) and providing the results of a set of three replications using the proposed model.…

Discusses not only the procedures, assumptions, and applications of advanced categorical statistics, but also covers some common misapplications, from which a great deal can be learned. Addresses the use and limitations of cross-tabulation and chi-square analysis, as well as issues such as observation independence and artificial inflation of a…

Examines the relationship between H. Eysenck's personality dimensions (extraversion, neuroticsm, and psychoticism) and communication variables, in three separate studies encompassing more than a dozen communication variables. Finds consistent patterns across the three studies. (SR)

Considers how relationship parameters correspond with directness of people's information-seeking strategies. Reframes questions about uncertainty to reflect issues relevant to intimate associations. Discusses how relationship intimacy, power dynamics, and information expectancies correspond with information-seeking behavior within close…

Investigates differences in brain structures, as reflected in hemispheric laterality, and sex on communicator style preferences. Combines handedness, familial sinistrality, and related correlates as a predictor of standard or anomalous hemispheric dominance. Finds data consistent with hypothesis that communication preferences have a…

Presents an empirical study of the Fortune 500 companies suggesting that "reputation management" is gaining ground as a driving philosophy behind corporate public relations. Finds some interesting correlations between reputation and specific categories of spending. Concludes that if reputation management is the new face of corporate…