Communication research on a broader age: An introduction to the special forum on funded research in communication

This essay introduces the special forum on funded research in communication. It briefly discusses the relationship of funded research with theoretical and methodological development in the communication discipline and the impact of receiving grant support on the professional life of an academic and on collegiality, resources, and university recognition for a department of communication. It also addresses the potential impact of funded research for strengthening the role and visibility of the communication discipline in the social sciences, and for increasing the impact of communication scholarship on policy.     

Communication research on a broader age: An introduction to the special forum on funded research in communication

This essay introduces the special forum on funded research in communication. It briefly discusses the relationship of funded research with theoretical and methodological development in the communication discipline and the impact of receiving grant support on the professional life of an academic and on collegiality, resources, and university recognition for a department of communication. It also addresses the potential impact of funded research for strengthening the role and visibility of the communication discipline in the social sciences, and for increasing the impact of communication scholarship on policy.     

试论传播学研究的多元方法

本文分析了镜式、灯式、神话式等三种传播研究方式,认为我国传播学研究存在三种态势,建议我国的传播学研究走“学术趣味”+“现实关怀”的道路。     

Contextualizing Boycotts and Buycotts: The Impure Politics of Consumer-Based Advocacy in an Age of Global Ecological Crises

Despite their popularity and significance, there is a paucity of communication scholarship on boycotts and buycotts. This absence may be due to an erroneous assumption that such tactics are merely economic, as well as to a hesitancy to critique consumption. This essay focuses on three contemporary US-based exemplars that address global ecological crises: the Rainforest Action Network boycott of Mitsubishi; the Farm Labor Organizing Committee boycott of Mt. Olive Pickle Company; and the Carrotmob buycott of a liquor store. The circuit of culture framework and a radically contextual approach provide a more nuanced analysis of consumer-based advocacy campaigns.     

被经验的中介和被中介的经验——从传播理论教材的译介看传播学在中国

本文以国外传播理论教材的译介作为视角,考察了欧美传播理论话语在中国的诠释和变异,研究了西方客观经验主义的大众传播理论如何被潜移默化地等同于传播学的过程,同时以《传播理论导引:分析与应用》为例,对我国目前传播学的教学与研究中存在的一些问题进行了探讨,提出应该进一步开阔视野、注重研究范式、重新思考传播理论的教学与应用。     

Effects of Mass and Interpersonal Communication on Breast Cancer Screening: Advancing Agenda-Setting Theory in Health Contexts

Drawing on components of agenda-setting theory and the two-step flow of information from mass media to news audiences, this study examines the effects of mass and interpersonal communication on breast cancer screening practices among college- and middle-aged women (n = 284). We theorized that screening behaviors among younger women would be influenced more by interpersonal sources of information while screening among middle-aged women would be more influenced by exposure to mass-mediated information. Findings supported anticipated patterns, revealing important and varying roles for both mass and interpersonal communication in the health behaviors of women. Implications for health practitioners and campaign planners, as well as recommendations for future research, are discussed.     

美国风险沟通研究:学术沿革、核心命题及其关键因素

美国风险沟通研究兴起于20世纪80年代中期。本文探讨了它产生的现实社会文化背景及其学术沿革,试图厘清风险沟通研究与风险管理研究、危机传播研究、公共关系研究的关系。风险沟通的功能定位经历了由单向告知到公共参与的转变。风险沟通的核心命题是风险=危害+愤怒,该研究非常关注公众的风险感知。风险沟通的关键因素是建立信任,该研究在理论探讨和操作指南两个层面上对信任问题进行了开掘。     

Acculturation and Communication Traits: A study of Cross-Cultural Adaptation among Chinese in America

This study investigated the relationships between acculturation and communication traits. One hundred and seventy-five Chinese across from the United States participated in this study. Participants received a battery of questionnaires in the mail, including the measures of communication apprehension, willingness to communicate, communication competence, argumentativeness, general disclosiveness and cultural identity. Results indicated that as proportion of life in America increased, Chinese identified more with American culture; in turn, they became less fearful, more willing and competent in communication. Their self-disclosure also became less frequent and intimate, but more positive, with longer time living in America. These findings suggest that culture shapes communication traits through exposure to and identification with the host culture to some extent.     

2001-2010:中国发展传播学研究现状与前景

本文对十年来中国主要新闻传播学学术期刊的发展传播学研究成果进行了梳理,对发展传播学研究在中国的进展情况进行了归纳总结和审慎展望。发现中国目前的发展传播学研究主要集中在媒介效果、媒介与社会变迁、媒介参与三个大的领域,媒介素养、健康传播作为发展传播学的重要专题在本文中也被单列专门讨论。同时我们也发现,中国的发展传播学研究的内容、方法、立场都发生了重大转变。发展传播学本身也从更深更广的社会维度关照中国在社会转型时期的问题,其中弱势群体和媒介素养将成为发展传播学的核心问题。     

Establishing the structure of reality for an industry: model and anti-model arguments as advocacy in Nike's crisis communication

This study illustrates the potential role of model and anti-model arguments in organizational crisis communication. Specifically, model and anti-model arguments are described as a strategy for moving the focus of a crisis from an organization to its industry. Model arguments enable organizations to establish their corrective action as industry standards that merit imitation. Conversely, organizations can set minimum standards for their industries with anti-model arguments. Phil Knight's May 12, 1998, speech announcing Nike's new initiatives in global manufacturing is analyzed as a case study. The essay concludes that model and anti-model arguments can suspend criticism of the organization, create the foundation for a return to industry prominence by the organization, and establish proposed new industry standards that are favorable to the organization.     

Emergency Communication Challenges in Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

In response to Hurricane Katrina's extensive destruction and related public health threats, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deployed more than 1,000 staff to its emergency operations center and to affected areas. Among them were members of CDC's Emergency Communication System. This paper describes the strategies and tactics used by health communication specialists during the pre-event, response, and post-event stages to address a range of emergency communication exigencies. It highlights three difficult challenges for CDC communication specialists during Hurricane Katrina: rapid dissemination of health messages; adaptation of health messages for diverse audiences, locations, and circumstances; and phasing of key risk messages during the emergency response.     

Emergency Communication Challenges in Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

In response to Hurricane Katrina's extensive destruction and related public health threats, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deployed more than 1,000 staff to its emergency operations center and to affected areas. Among them were members of CDC's Emergency Communication System. This paper describes the strategies and tactics used by health communication specialists during the pre-event, response, and post-event stages to address a range of emergency communication exigencies. It highlights three difficult challenges for CDC communication specialists during Hurricane Katrina: rapid dissemination of health messages; adaptation of health messages for diverse audiences, locations, and circumstances; and phasing of key risk messages during the emergency response.     

Communication: On Being an Angel. Incarnation and Angelic Communication in Medieval Christian Theology: Modern Reflections,Starting with Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica

Communication involves incarnation in a twofold sense: it assumes a body, and it brings thoughts and values into being. The question of angelic communication, as a theoretical model for language and thought in medieval Christian theology, combines the two senses: for Thomas Aquinas, angels communicate among themselves without bodies, given that as immaterial beings they transmit their thoughts by will alone; but they need bodies in order to “appear” to humans and communicate with them. This indicates, if only by default, the place of incarnation in communication—for those of us who are not angels.     

美国传播学的“冷战宣言”——重评拉斯韦尔的《社会传播的结构与功能》

拉斯韦尔的《社会传播的结构与功能》是传播学史上的一篇经典之作,对这一学科的形成与发展产生了深远影响。本文结合拉斯韦尔的政治理论和思想背景,揭示了他对两种意识形态对立以及由此引发战争可能性的强调,认为该文堪称美国传播学的冷战宣言。     

The Rate and Delay in Overload: An Investigation of Communication Overload and Channel Synchronicity on Identification and Job Satisfaction

This study investigates the relationship between communication overload and uses of diverse communication channels in terms of their level of synchronicity. Emphasis on the synchronicity of any given channel reveals how temporal elements (i.e., rate and processing time) play an important role in perceptions of communication load. Additionally, this study examines the association between communication overload, organizational identification and job satisfaction. Findings reveal: (a) both high and low synchronous channels are associated with increased reports of communication overload; (b) a mediating effect of organizational identification on the relationship between communication overload and job satisfaction; and (c) a moderating effect of communication overload on the relationship between low synchronous channels and organizational identification.     

Academic and Social Integration in the Basic Communication Course: Predictors of Students' Out-of-Class Communication and Academic Learning

This study reports an investigation designed to determine the generalizability of source credibility scales for immediate superiors across organizational contexts. Four meaningful and statistically independent dimensions for the measurement of the source credibility of immediate superiors in an organizational setting are reported.     

Special Section Introduction: Best Practices in Risk and Crisis Communication

There is a substantial gap between those people in the United States who identify as being favorable toward organ donation (~90%) and those registered as donors (~30%). A growing body of evidence suggests Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices are effective sites for facilitating higher organ donor registration rates on a national scale. The goal of the current study was to determine the utility and sustainability of a message immediacy approach, which draws from theoretical concepts such as priming and cues to action. Message immediacy requires individuals be: (a) exposed to a message that prompts an action, (b) in an environment where a prescribed action or behavior can be enacted, and (c) favorable toward the promoted behavior or action. Thirty-four Michigan counties, divided into three implementation groups, received campaigns in October (Group 1), November (Group 2), and December (Group 3) of 2009. Registration rates for three to six months after campaign implementation indicate that the on-site message prompts almost doubled registration rates in DMV offices. Additionally, preliminary cost-effectiveness evidence suggests message immediacy offers a relatively inexpensive campaign strategy.     

Parliamentary procedure in a community group: Communication and vigilant decision making

Parliamentary procedure is pervasive in most decision‐making groups of a dozen or more persons, but it is has been understudied as an important influence on the group communication process. It is not well understood by members of groups who claim to have adopted it, and procedures are seldom invoked in ways that suggest a very sophisticated model. However, parliamentary procedure need not be considered as simply a rigid set of laws. This multi‐phase research project provides insight into how parliamentary procedure is selectively used in community groups and functions as a set of rules that influences the vigilance of the communication process.     

Communication and Social Identity Theory: Existing and Potential Connections in Organizational Identification Research

This essay builds on the growing, but underdeveloped, role of communication in work based on Social Identity Theory (SIT) as it relates to identity and identification in the organization. Five existing areas of connection between communication and SIT in organizational identification research are documented and assessed. These include salience of dual/multiple identifications, computer-mediated communication and virtual work related to identification, relationally focused work identities, organizational-level identities, and disidentification and related forms.