The Effects of Viewing Grey's Anatomy on Perceptions of Doctors and Patient Satisfaction

The present investigation applies cultivation theory to describe the role of viewing Grey's Anatomy on patients' predispositions. Results demonstrate that heavy viewers of Grey's Anatomy perceive this program to be credible. Credibility was positively associated with a perception that real-world doctors are courageous. A direct association did not emerge between Grey's Anatomy viewing and a perception that doctors are courageous, although an indirect effect emerged, mediated through credibility. A positive association emerged between perceptions that doctors are courageous and patient satisfaction. Results are discussed with an emphasis on the role of entertainment programs in cultivating patients' predispositions about medical doctors.     

Radio Adaptations of Robin Hood's Legend During the Golden Age of Radio

During radio's reign on the airwaves, classics and legends were sources for radio plays written for a wide audience. Scriptwriters realized radio's cultural importance and culled classics for material that pushed their conception of “high” culture but still satisfied a wide audience. Radio plays were adapted from William Shakespeare's plays, Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and Robin Hood's legend. This study covers radio adaptations of Robin Hood broadcast between the 1930s and 1970s: Popeye (1939); Buster Brown (1948); Family Theater (1949); the children's theater program Let's Pretend (1954), Escape (1952), Gunsmoke (1955); and Crisis (1975).     

The press and political continuity in China: The case of the World Economic Herald

This paper, utilizing the method of case study, investigates the role of the Shanghai‐based World Economic Herald in China's political democratization in the 1980s, and analyses its relationship with the social changes of that period.

A prominent theme running through this study is that political democratization must be coupled with economic growth in order for the role of the press to change in China.

Results of the study suggest that the World Economic Herald, throughout its ten‐year existence, became more and more politically oriented and outspoken in its coverage of key political issues. The findings also reveal that in early 1989, the Herald waged an unprecedented struggle against the Party's tight control of the news media and for political democratization including press freedom. However, its role in promoting political change was restricted by the nature of China's reform movement, which was characterized by a separation of political reform from economic reform. The development and demise of the Herald provided a window through which it could be clearly seen how the press affected and was affected by the social changes in China in the historical period of the 1980s.     

Presidential silence,C. Everett Koop,and the surgeon general's report on AIDS

On October 22, 1986, C. Everett Koop released the Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. This essay examines that report as a rhetorical watershed in the national dialogue about AIDS. We suggest that this report—and the media attention that attended it—dramatically shifted the socio‐political environment concerning AIDS and contextual‐izfd Reagan's silence concerning the disease as a lack of presidential leadership on the issue.     

Kenneth Burke and the Mod Donna The dramatistic method applied to feminist criticism

This essay employ's Burke's pentad and pattern of symbolic action and a definition of feminism proposed by Aileen S. Kraditor to posit a definition of feminist drama. An analysis of the Mod Donna by Myrna Lamb illustrates the critical use of this definition.     

Mario Van Peebles's Panther and Popular Memories of the Black Panther Party

The 1995 movie Panther depicted the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense as a vibrant but ultimately doomed social movement for racial and economic justice during the late 1960s. Panther's narrative indicted the white-operated police for perpetuating violence against African-Americans and for undermining movements for black empowerment. As such, this film represented a rare source of filmic counter-memory that challenged hegemonic memories of U.S. race relations. Newspaper reports and reviews of Panther, however, questioned the film's veracity as a source of historical information. An analysis of these reviews and reports indicates the challenges counter-memories confront in popular culture.     

Thomas Hyde,Julia Pettee and the Development of Cataloging Principles; with a Translation of Hyde's 1674 Preface to the Reader

Julia Pettee's claim to find in Thomas Hyde's preface to the Bodleian Catalog of 1674 a formulation of "the first principle of modern cataloging" stands up to the criticism of Eva Verona and Carolyn Frost. Her statement of that principle, "that the cataloger should recognize and assemble literary units under a single caption," faithfully summarizes the common intent of the procedures described in Hyde's Preface. Further, this principle should not be identified with the literary unit principle alone (a common misconception), but refers to the two interrelated principles of authorship and the literary unit. That Hyde "formulated" these principles can be defended only if we permit Pettee a certain latitude in her use of language. Included is an English translation of Hyde's Preface to the Reader.     

Hiding homoeroticism in plain view: the Fight Club DVD as digital closet

–The DVD format has emerged as the dominant digital means of repackaging films for home consumption. In this essay, we theorize this new viewing experience and identify some of the challenges it poses for the media critic. We argue that the additional material DVDs typically offer, coupled with the format's interactivity, constitute a rhetorically powerful means of directing the consumer's viewing experience and protecting the commercial viability of the product. To illustrate, we offer a critical analysis of the DVD release of the controversial film Fight Club. Our analysis suggests that Fight Club's DVD “extra text” dissuades the viewer from acknowledging the film's homoerotic elements as representing homosexual experience.     

Deviant subjects in foucault and A Clockwork Orange: congruent critiques of criminological constructions of subjectivity

–The expansion of social scientific models for controlling crime and deviancy provided the context for both Stanley Kubrick's film A Clockwork Orange and much of Foucault's writing. This essay examines how Foucault's writings and Kubrick's film lay out congruent critiques of social scientific and criminological attempts to define and constitute deviancy and subjectivity. Foucault's texts and Kubrick's film ask us to remember the violence of our everyday existence and to recognize our modern nightmares as portents of what lies along the path that we have followed.     

Communication Ethics and My Sister's Keeper

Objectives: To identify ethical dilemmas in communication presented in My Sister's Keeper, a novel by Jodi Picoult. To examine how one's position/perspective shapes how one interprets and evaluates situations. To analyze ethical decision making.

Relevant Courses: We have developed this activity for use in Communication Ethics; however, it could be employed in several courses like family, health, and interpersonal communication     

Prosocial effects of entertainment television in India

The study examines the prosocial effects of Hum Log (We People), India's first long‐running television soap opera. Hum Log was a prosocial television programme that was designed to promote women's status in Indian society. Regression analysis was used to measure the degree to which exposure to Hum Log affected viewers' (1) awareness of certain prosocial beliefs promoted by the series, (2) level of television dependency, (3) involvement with the characters of Hum Log, and (4) adherence to three prosocial beliefs promoted by Hum Log. Exposure to Hum Log was positively associated with viewers' awareness of the programme's prosocial messages, television dependency, and involvement with television characters in the series. Viewers who were more exposed to Hum Log were also more likely to believe in women's equality and women's freedom of choice, but not in family planning. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of present and future research on the use of prosocial television programmes for development in Asia.     

The Post-Nuclear Family and the Depoliticization of Unplanned Pregnancy in Knocked Up,Juno, and Waitress

This essay explores three films from 2007, Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress, which foreground young women's unplanned pregnancies. These movies depoliticize women's reproduction and motherhood through narratives that rearticulate the meaning of choice. Bypassing the subject of abortion, the women's decisions revolve around their choice of heterosexual partners and investment in romantic relationships. Although they question the viability of the nuclear family for single pregnant women, these films represent new iterations of post-feminism that ultimately restore conservative ideas that valorize pregnancy and motherhood as women's imperatives. We conclude by addressing how these movies present a distorted and short-sighted depiction of the politics of reproductive agency and the challenges that single mothers face.     

Boys Don't Cry and female masculinity: reclaiming a life & dismantling the politics of normative heterosexuality

–This analysis argues that Kimberly Peirce's film Boys Don't Cry can be read as a liberatory narrative that queers the centers of heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity by privileging female masculinity and celebrating its differences from heterosexual norms. My critique emphasizes how the narrative strategically challenges heteronormativity and, in turn, “narrative's heteroideology” (Roof, 1996), in four ways: 1) by dismantling the myth of “America's heartland”; 2) by problematizing heteromasculinity; 3) by centering female masculinity; and 4) by blurring the boundaries of female masculinity. I argue that the articulation of each subversive strategy within the narratives of Boys Don't Cry can serve a liberatory function, whereby the privileged subjectivities of heterosexuality and hegemonic masculinity are dismantled and, simultaneously, female masculinity and gender fluidity are privileged and normalized. I conclude that the narrative structure of Boys Don't Cry not only privileges gender diversity, but also exposes the inherent sexual bigotry of heteroideology and the brutal and deadly consequences of society's failure to eradicate such prejudice. I just keep on laughing Hiding the tears in my eyes Because boys don't cry. Boys don't cry. (Smith, Tolhurst, & Dempsey, 1988)     

The Shadow Knows: The Counter-Fantasy of the American Antihero and Symbolic Divergence in Golden Age Radio

Various radio and pulp incarnations of The Shadow have played a pivotal role in shaping American superhero mythology and cultural unconscious. This essay explores The Shadow's origins within the 1930s, and then utilizes Fantasy Theme Analysis to uncover mythic tensions and conflicts within The Shadow's transition from noir-like dystopian antihero into the more romantic utopian superhero of Orson Welles' 1937 radio program. We conclude by contemplating rhetorical implications for The Shadow's “symbolic divergence,” a fantasy evolving into contradictory counter-fantasies and rhetorical visions in radio and pulps, as a provocative illustration of theoretical debates regarding the psychodynamic functions of rhetorical fantasy.     

Using the Quality Matters Rubric to Improve Online Cataloging Courses

Quality Matters is a program that certifies online and hybrid courses. For a course to earn Quality Matters certification, it must meet eight standards of online course design and pass a rigorous peer-review process. In fall 2008, this author's online Cataloging and Classification course went through the Quality Matters peer-review process and was awarded Quality Matters certification. It is the only cataloging course in the nation to earn this certification. The author's Quality Matters peer-review process is discussed as is the potential of the Quality Matters rubric to improve online cataloging courses.     

Gregory Bateson,Niklas Luhmann,and Ecological Communication

Cognizant of the evolving academic discipline of ecological communication (EC), I offer this essay as a follow-up to my previous publication—a critical exegesis of Niklas Luhmann's Ecological Communication (1989)—in this journal. Hoping to throw more light on Luhmann's formulations, I introduce and interpret those writings of Gregory Bateson that apparently influenced the former—and/or attempted to link ecology with communication. While I do not necessarily advocate either of these two thinkers' overall philosophical frameworks, I believe that they deserve attention—at the least insofar as they provide a measure of contrast to the contemporary academic discourse of EC (which remains shallow, intellectually parochial, and nonrigorous). That aside, many specific ideas developed by these two thinkers will interest a wide range of constituencies—especially those devoted to the study of information, communication, and ecology.     

John Wesley on rhetoric and belles lettres

Students of public address have long admired the rhetorical works of two of the leading ministers of the eighteenth century—Hugh Blair and George Campbell. Little has been said, however, about the rhetorical theory of another eighteenth‐century preacher, John Wesley. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Wesley's views on rhetoric and belles lettres. Since most of the subjects covered by Blair in his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres were also discussed by Wesley in his Journal, Letters, and essays, Blair's pattern of organization is followed here. Hence the study considers Wesley's precepts on taste, genius, style, the speaker's content and organization, delivery, poetry, and historical and philosophical writing.     

Qatar's Hidden Women: Symbolic Annihilation and Documentary Media Practice

This article explores how documentary film practice and visual storytelling can be used to help portray Qatari women's narratives, even though many are prohibited by cultural norms from appearing in visual media. We investigate which communication and media practices can provide a work-around, ensuring that women's stories and testimonies are documented. We also explore whether Qatar's social and cultural restrictions result in a form of “symbolic annihilation” for Qatari women, as articulated by Gaye Tuchman, and how this impacts Qatari women's position and visibility in local society.     

The Relationship of Competition and Financial Commitment Revisited: A Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis in European Newspaper Markets

The Cincinnati Post published its last edition on New Year's Eve 2007, leaving the Cincinnati Enquirer as the only daily newspaper in the market. The next year, fewer candidates ran for municipal office in the Kentucky suburbs most reliant on the Post, incumbents became more likely to win reelection, and voter turnout and campaign spending fell. These changes happened even though the Enquirer at least temporarily increased its coverage of the Post's former strongholds. Voter turnout remained depressed through 2010, nearly three years after the Post closed, but the other effects diminished with time. The authors exploited a difference-in-differences strategy and the fact that the Post's closing date was fixed 30 years in advance to rule out some noncausal explanations for their results. Although their findings are statistically imprecise, they suggest that newspapers—even underdogs such as the Post, which had a circulation of just 27,000 when it closed—can have a substantial and measurable impact on public life.