Freedom of speech and the “new left”

This article examines the role and responsibilities of the “New Left”; in current social contexts. It explores, specifically, the legal rights and obligations of any dissenting group and the part that these dissenting factions play in our society.     

“Authentic” talk in broadcast news: The construction of community

Some recent assessments of public communication have demonstrated a concern for “authentic” forms of discourse in public life. This article uses a methodology derived from conversation analysis to examine different forms of public discourse in news interviews. Previous studies taking this approach have outlined the protocols for formal news interviews, but this article also looks at some types of “conversational” news interviewing that are increasingly prevalent in contemporary broadcasting. The modes of address (to the overhearing audience) in these types of interview can be usefully compared to the inclusive, sociable address associated with some genres of popular entertainment. It is suggested that the effect of “communality,” constructed by these conversational forms of talk, might be one factor in the development of new forms of participatory “public‐ness,” around some types of news events.     

Education and training for publishing in Britain prepares for the “information society”

This article considers the British experience of developing education for publishers at the end of the 1990s. To introduce the subject, it briefly outlines recent trends in the UK in publishing and bookselling: the size and nature of the workforce as revealed in recent surveys; and what employers recently indicated that they are looking for in their employees. Then, it summarises some of the developments that are taking place in education and training, before outlining the courses currently available in the Universities, their growing emphasis on business management and Information Technology, and the benefits to employers of recruiting students from these courses. Finally, it raises issues that will become more significant in the future: new legal and ethical challenges, and the responsibility for preservation and conservation arising from technological changes; keeping existing staff up to date; the international dimensions of the industry; retaining links between the academic community and the industry; regulating standards of professional practice; and the development of research. An earlier and shorter version of this paper, entitled “Education for publishing— the British experience,” was presented by Ian Johnson at a colloquium “Books, Publishers and Libraries,” organised by Zagreb Chamber of Commerce’s Association of Publishers and Booksellers and the University of Zagreb’ s Department of Information Science in December 1996. IAN JOHNSON has been Head of the School of Information and Media at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland since 1989, and initiated the School’s development as a centre for publishing education and research in 1992. He is currently joint editor of Libri; a member of the Editorial Board of Education for Information; and Chairman of the Heads of Schools and Departments Committee of BAILER: the British Association for Information and Library Education and Research, and of the Executive Board of EUCLID: the European Association for Library and Information Education and Research. JO ROYLE is Subject Leader for Publishing Studies and Course Leader for the BA/BA (Honours) in Publishing Studies in the School of Information and Media, where she has taught since 1993. She is currently researching aspects of branding in publishing, and the impact of the Internet on relationship management within the book trade.     

“The information superhighway is a ‘quivering oxymoron’” and other musings on government information policy in an era of rapidly evolving information technologies

In this JGI interview, futurist Paul Saffo discusses a wide variety of information technology topics ranging from the respective roles of government and private-sector involvement in the Internet to privacy, wireless communications, and the role of information technology in future military conflicts. Throughout the interview, Saffo notes the probable impacts that rapidly evolving information/communication technologies will play in government, business, and personal lives.     

“You can't eat information:” Government information and the information policy role of the national library of New Zealand

The National Library of New Zealand is committed to promoting access to information. Government information is a significant component in the Library's operational and policy work. The Library collects published government information and provides policy advice on New Zealanders' ability to access and use information. Over the last decade, the National Library has initiated or contributed to a number of projects concerned with government information. Some, like the Depository Library Scheme, are solely focused on government information, whereas others discuss government information issues in the wider context of information policy at the national level. This article looks at the environment in which these projects arose, what they achieved, and the reasons why it has not been easy to gain agreement for a unified focus on government information.     

“Living encyclopedia” or idle talk? Seeking and providing consumer information in an Internet newsgroup

The article investigates the character of the Internet newsgroups as fora of information seeking, and reviews the potentials of “weak and strong ties” proposed by Granovetter and the prospects of newsgroups as a “living encyclopedia” suggested by Rheingold. An empirical study in the field of consumer issues was conducted by focusing on a Finnish newsgroup sfnet.kuluttajat. The research questions deal with the nature of information needs and the ways in which the participants provided help regarding requests addressed to the group. About 9% of the 894 messages contained questions indicating explicit information needs. Attention was also paid to the sources and channels used by participants providing help to information seekers. About 24% of messages contained answers to questions. Help providers preferred their own experience as an information source. Both successful and unsuccessful attempts at information seeking were explored. Surprisingly, there was practically no dialogue between information seekers and providers, even though newsgroups provide opportunities for interaction.     

Everyday life information seeking: Approaching information seeking in the context of “way of life”

The study offers a framework for the study of everyday life information seeking (ELIS) in the context of way of and mastery of life. Way of life is defined as the “order of things,” manifesting itself, for example, in the relationship between work and leisure time, models of consumption, and nature of hobbies. Mastery of life is interpreted as “keeping things in order;” four ideal types of mastery of life with their implications for ELIS, namely optimistic-cognitive, pessimistic-cognitive, defensive-affective and pessimistic-affective mastery of life are outlined. The article reviews two major dimensions of ELIS, there are. the seeking of orienting and practical information. The research framework was tested in an empirical study based on interviews with teachers and industrial workers, eleven of both. The main features of seeking orienting and practical information are reviewed, followed by suggestions for refinement of the research framework.     

Analysis of broadcast literature: Broadcast Journalism in “education on the air” 1930–1953

During the past six years the Journal of Broadcasting has brought to its readers bibliographies on specific topics (audience measurement techniques, content analysis, etc.) and from publications devoted to a specific field (law, economics, journalism, etc.). The bibliography published below belongs to this second category. Education on the Air, the yearbook of the Institute for Education by Radio‐Television, is a continuous record of the deliberations of a convention devoted to exploring the informative and cultural uses of broadcasting. Under the direction of I. Keith Tyler, the IERT was for many years the only major association devoted exclusively to this subject area, and many of the present organizations now in the field are “spin‐offs” from these annual meetings hosted by the Ohio State University. Within the framework of the IERT, the subject of broadcast journalism has not been neglected. Over a period of almost 30 years, this use of radio for informing the public of the events of the day was discussed in various IERT sessions.

This bibliography was prepared to assist researchers and students interested in the growth and development of broadcast journalism as reflected in the IERT annual meetings. Dr. Heath is professor of journalism at Oklahoma State University, and is former chairman of the Council on Radio‐Television Journalism of the Association for Education in Journalism. Mr. Wolfson is working toward his doctorate at Michigan State University. They collaborated on this bibliography while at Iowa State University.     

“Pick and choose” opinion climate: How browsing of political messages shapes public opinion perceptions and attitudes

ABSTRACT

High-choice media environments allow people to cocoon themselves with like-minded messages (confirmation bias), which could shape both individual attitudes and perceived prevalence of opinions. This study builds on motivated cognition and spiral of silence theory to disentangle how browsing political messages (both selective exposure as viewing full articles and incidental exposure as encountering leads only) shapes perceived public opinion and subsequently attitudes. Participants (N?=?115) browsed online articles on controversial topics; related attitudes and public opinion perceptions were captured before and after. Multi-level modeling demonstrated a confirmation bias. Both selective and incidental exposure affected attitudes per message stance, with stronger impacts for selective exposure. Opinion climate perceptions mediated selective exposure impacts on attitudes.     

“Freedom of information concerns”

With varying degrees of perception and awareness, members of Congress have long had concerns about freedom of information values and the FOI Act. Indeed, congressional diligence and independence has sustained the FOIA and supported its extension and refinement. Among the challenges of late to both these values and the statute are new electronic collection and dissemination of information practices within the Federal agencies and a new OMB circular on information resources management. In both of these developments, practice will have to assure congressional overseers that there is no resulting significant limitation of agency information holdings.     

Professional attitudes toward a first‐course requirement in speech in central states colleges and universities

A discussion of the tendencies in the teaching of public speaking in college today, which presents a rationale for a study of the subject.     

Abstracts of theses in the field of speech and drama,VI∗

Two studies tested the assumption that relational contexts affect the way people react to messages that hurt their feelings. In the first, the range of responses people have to hurtful messages was explored, and underlying dimensions reflecting the responses were identified. Participants’ reactions were characterized by three broad dimensions: active verbal responses (e.g., attacking the other, defending the self, asking for an explanation), acquiescent responses (e.g., crying, apologizing), and invulnerable responses (e.g., ignoring the message, laughing). Analyses indicated that people who felt extremely hurt tended to react more often by acquiescing than those who were less hurt. Abo, those who felt the impact of hurt on their relationship was relatively low responded more often with invulnerability than those who felt the impact was high. In the second study, the association between people's reactions to hurt and the quality of their relationship with the person who hurt them was examined, as was the influence of particular types of relationships (e.g., those between family members or romantic partners) on individuab’ responses to hurt. Among other findings, the results suggested that relational satisfaction was positively associated with active verbal responses and negatively correlated both with the degree of experienced hurt and the perceived impact of the hurtful message on the relationship. Further, hurtful messages from family members tended to elicit greater feelings of hurt than those from other people—regardless of the closeness, similarity, amount of contact, or level of satisfaction reported by respondents. By comparison, messages from romantic partners had a greater effect on participants’ relationships than did those from individuab involved in family or non‐family/non‐romantic relationships.