The effects of gender‐role expectations upon perceptions of communicative competence

Several researchers have proposed that power, rather than gender, accounts for women using more powerless language than men. The present study examined the specific interaction context of bargaining and compared power with gender as potential predictors of the use of threats, one particular form of powerful language. Grounded in an interactional/social exchange view of power as dependence in social transactions, this study represented a marked departure from past studies of gender‐based language. The results largely supported power rather than gender as the best predictor of the use of powerful language in an interactional context involving bargaining.     

Powerless Language in Health Media: The Influence of Biological Sex and Magazine Type on Health Language

Powerless language influences how media consumers perceive the believability and trustworthiness of news sources. Past studies have suggested females use more powerless language, which can negatively influence credibility. However, previous research also suggests powerless language may be preferred in certain contexts. To investigate powerless language use in written health media, a content analysis investigated health-related articles in issues of 12 magazines between October 2008 and September 2009. Analysis compared differences in powerless language frequencies relative to three variables: biological sex of the author, biological sex of the audience, and the magazine's overall topic focus. Female authors and health-focused magazines used more powerless language than male authors and generic-focused magazines, and powerless language was more often directed towards a female audience than a male audience.     

The influence of power upon powerful speech: A social‐exchange perspective

Several researchers have proposed that power, rather than gender, accounts for a greater use of powerless language by females than by males. The present study considered whether the manipulation of power as grounded in the social exchange perspective would influence the use of powerful language by males and females alike. The results indicated that males in positions of higher bargaining power used more bottom‐line statements than males in positions of lower power. Yet, the level of power apparently had little impact upon the use of bottom‐line statements by female bargainers.     

The effects of office aesthetic quality on students' perceptions of teacher credibility and communicator style

This study examined the effects of office aesthetic quality on students' perceptions of teacher credibility and communicator style. Ninety‐seven individuals from introductory communication courses participated in this experiment. Participants were assigned to visit either a low or a high aesthetic quality office, or to a no‐office exposure control group, prior to evaluating a videotaped sample of an instructor lecturing in a basic communication course. Results indicated that office aesthetic quality influenced participants' evaluations of teacher credibility and communicator style.     

Interpersonal communication satisfaction and biological sex: Nurse‐physician relationships

This study examined the extent to which the biological sex of nurse‐physician interactants related to the interpersonal communication satisfaction experienced by the nurse. The sample included 153 male and female nurses. Results indicated that same‐sex interactions are more satisfying for female nurses, while mixed‐sex interactions are more satisfying for male nurses. Nurses reported greater communication satisfaction when interacting with female physicians.     

It isn't a matter of just being funny: Humor production by organizational leaders

This study explored whether organizational leaders recognize humor as part of their management style and how compatible the leaders ‘ humor strategy is with their overall communication style. Results reveal that leaders use more pro‐social humor than anti‐social humor in the workplace. Several relationships between the emotional aspects of humor production and the communicator style constructs indicate that leaders use humor as a socially acceptable communication technique to control groups and enhance their own communicator image.     

Malevolence,stigma, and social distance: Maximizing intergroup differences in HIV/AIDS discourse

This study examined the intergroup language used by young heterosexual Australians in conversations about HIV/AIDS and safe sex. Sixty male and 72 female heterosexuals participated in four‐person facilitated conversations (same‐sex or mixed‐sex) about HIV/AIDS and safe sex, which were recorded and transcribed. We focused on extracts concerning strangers or malevolent individuals who appear to be group members, along with extracts involving foreign national groups. Discourse analysis showed that groups at lower levels of social distance were constructed mainly in terms of individual responsibility. At moderate social distance, stereotypes were more negative, but sub‐typing was common, whereas at the highest levels, people were constructed entirely in intergroup terms. The findings of this study suggest that HTV prevention programs should make reference to all salient outgroups, so as to neutralize communicative strategies that strengthen intergroup boundaries as a means of reducing perceived personal threat of HIV infection.     

Male/female language differences and effects in same‐sex and mixed‐sex dyads: The gender‐linked language effect

Ninety‐six university students (48 males, 48 females) were randomly assigned a partner (whom they did not know well), forming two dyad conditions: (a) same‐sex, and (b) mixed‐sex. The 48 dyads were audiotape‐recorded in 20‐minute problem solving interactions, from which 300‐word language samples were transcribed for analysis. In Study 1, 9 trained observers coded 12 language variables previously shown to distinguish male from female language use. Discriminant analysis results demonstrated that a weighted combination of 8 variables could differentiate male from female interactants: male indicators—interruptions, directives, and conjunctions/ fillers begin sentence; female indicators—questions, justifiers, intensive adverbs, personal pronouns, and adverbials begin sentence. An analysis of variance of individuals’ gender discriminant function scores showed greater differences in gender‐linked language behavior in same‐sex than in mixed‐sex dyads. In Study 2, 231 naive observers rated the 96 interactants, using the Speech Dialect Attitudinal Scale. MANOVA results showed that in same‐sex dyads, female interactants were rated higher on Socio‐Intellectual Status and Aesthetic Quality, but no gender difference was found on Dynamism. However, in mixed‐sex dyads, men were rated higher on Aesthetic Quality, whereas women were rated higher on Dynamism. Taken together, the analyses of the objective language data and the subjective attributional data provide partial support for the Gender‐Linked Language Effect in same‐sex dyads and for the attenuation of that effect in mixed‐sex dyads.     

Patterns of communicative interaction in small groups

Effects on selection of message strategies of variables relevant to two communicative objectives, task and interpersonal, were studied. Subjects composed a message in response to one of four situations: high or low self interest in compliance, or high or low desire for liking by the message recipient. Self interest influenced the degree of pressure exerted on the message recipient. Desire for liking altered usage of strategies which conveyed attitudes about the message recipient or attempted to alter reactions to the communicator. In a second study, subjects selected strategies from a list provided by the experimenter rather than actually composing messages. Under this procedure, the effects of the independent variables disappeared. An argument is advanced that message construction may be the more useful approach in determining effects of situational variables on the selection of message strategies, as well as more valuable in elaborating the strategies themselves.     

The business of international broadcasting cultural bridges and barriers

The advent of international satellite television broadcasting, including the satellite‐to‐cable services which are now proliferating in several countries of the world, represents a qualitative leap in the nature of broadcasting. Satellite distribution is a literally ‘international’ medium in which signals can not only spill across neighbouring borders, but reach audiences spread over entire world regions and even link diasporic communities on different continents. The concerns raised by various countries about national sovereignty and their attempts to control reception are well‐known, but dishes and cable systems have flourished, and international and regional services are leasing new transponder capacity faster than operators can get their satellites into orbit. In this new satellite business, language and culture are emerging as powerful forces in making and breaking world‐regional markets. Thus, in contrast to the large degree of regional integration in Latin America, thanks to its linguistic and cultural similarities, service providers in Asia have soon found that they have to take account of linguistic and other cultural differences in establishing their markets, which therefore have more of a national than a regional character. This article reviews these trends and outlines how the technological potential to integrate regional markets via satellite broadcasting across borders has been attenuated at least as much by cultural as political resistance. Evidence of the effectiveness of such resistance, it is argued, raises questions about the validity of the rhetoric of ‘cultural imperialism’ now being heard again in Asia.     

Interactivity reexamined: A baseline analysis of early business web sites

This study reexamined the concept of interactivity and proposed that interactivity be defined as the extent to which the communicator and the audience respond to each other's communication need. Interactivity was construed as consisting of five dimensions: 1) playfulness, 2) choice, 3) connectedness, 4) information collection, and 5) reciprocal communication. Web sites for products, services, and retail outlets appeared to differ significantly in terms of connectedness, information collection, and reciprocal communication.     

Sex Differences in Goals for Supportive Interactions

One explanation for sex differences in supportive behavior is that men and women pursue different goals in supportive interactions. Sex differences in goals may themselves be explained by personality traits such as expressivity and supportive self‐efficacy, or situational factors such as target responsibility. The current study examined sex differences in the pursuit of eight supportive goals, and the extent to which differences were explained by personality and situational factors. Participants (254 men, 386 women) read hypothetical scenarios involving a distressed friend who was depicted as responsible or not responsible for his or her problematic situation, and responded to measures of supportive goals and personality traits. Results indicate that women are somewhat more likely to pursue a range of goals that are likely to result in effective supportive messages (e.g., emotional support, problem‐solving). Many of the sex differences in goal pursuit were mediated by the personality traits of expressivity and supportive self‐efficacy.     

The relationship between perceived instructor communicator style,argumentativeness, and verbal aggressiveness

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationships among perceived instructor communicator style, perceived instructor trait argumentativeness, and perceived instructor trait verbal aggressiveness in the college classroom. Participants were 236 undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of communication courses at a large Eastern university. Results indicated that (a) perceived instructor trait argumentativeness was positively related to the perceived instructor communicator style attributes of impression leaving, contentious, open, dramatic, dominant, precise, relaxed, attentive, and animated; (b) perceived instructor trait verbal aggressiveness was positively related to the perceived instructor communicator style attributes of contentious and precise, and negatively related to the perceived communicator style attributes of impression leaving, relaxed, friendly, attentive, and animated; and (c) perceived instructor use of verbally aggressive messages was related in some way to the perceived instructor communicator style attributes of contentious, impression leaving, friendly, attentive, animated, relaxed, dramatic, and precise.     

Sex differences in communication and the construction of HIV/AIDS

This paper reports analyses of sex differences in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior related to HIV/AIDS and communication about HIV I'AIDS in the heterosexual college population. Men and women differed in their assessments of risk to HIV infection for various behaviors; in each case women perceived greater risk. Women were more favorable than men regarding talking about AIDS and attitudes about condom use. Men reported a greater number of sexual partners for the previous five years than did women. Men, more often than women, appear to have changed their behavior in a direction of greater risk. Only two sex differences were found for prevention‐related behaviors. First, men more often reported having purchased a condom. However, no sex differences were found for actual condom use. Second, as reported in previous studies, women were more likely to engage in AIDS‐related talk with a sexual partner. Because of their many differences, men and women need to be targeted as separate audiences for HIV/AIDS prevention. Further, because women have emerged as the most rapidly growing group at risk for HIV infection and because women appear to be more willing than men to implement HIV/AIDS prevention in their relationships, they should be considered a primary audience for HIV/AIDS‐prevention programs designed for influencing the behavior of heterosexual couples.     

The relationship of supportive communication to sex discussion in the home

Supportive communication was examined as a component of mothers’ sex discussion with children. Results demonstrated that mothers who communicated supportively were more open and disclosing when discussing sex and were more likely to provide sons with birth control information and instruction than mothers who communicated nonsupportively. The study concludes by raising several issues for future research and sex education pro‐ams for parents.     

Staff problems with geriatric care in two types of health care organizations

This essay examines the content and importance of issue‐similar texts created by nursing home and hospital professionals. The purpose of the analysis is to understand some of the cultural, linguistic, and thematic dimensions of nursing home organizations in relation to care for older adults. The number, types, imagery, and intensity of metaphors; the degree of certainty‐ambivalence of language; the primary themes of the stories; the complexity of the communication; and the degree of attraction toward the older patient group are considered. These groups of caregivers appear to be similar in text construction, sympathy toward clients, and the issue of control in relationships. They seem to differ in terms of organizational insensitivity, story content, work context, and complexity of awareness relating to aging issues.     

The FCC's war problems division: Partner in a forgotten blacklist

Early in World War II The Federal Communications Commission's War Problems Division, cooperating with other agencies, expressed opinions that contributed to loss of jobs for at least 30 foreign‐language broadcasters accused of enemy sympathies. Those opinions perhaps violated civil liberties. Factors facilitating the rulings were new agencies' unclear jurisdictions, paramount desire to win the war, belief in propaganda's power, and broadcasters' leasing of time to brokers which made it difficult to determine employees' politics. This blacklisting demonstrates the need for clear jurisdictions in government agencies, separation of judicial and accusatory functions in administrative agencies, and care in protecting civil liberties during national emergencies.     

基于语言评价信息的移动电子商务服务质量评价研究

[目的/意义] 针对现有移动电子商务服务质量评价指标不客观的问题,重点研究移动电子商务环境下评价服务质量的模型及方法,为消费者科学选择电商服务提供参考,为企业改善服务质量提供建议。[方法/过程] 引入群决策理论中的对语言评价信息的处理方法,首先将7粒度短语评价信息转化为三角模糊数,然后收集用户给出的语言短语形式评价信息,计算各个评价指标的质量评价值,最后计算评价值与三角模糊数之间的相似度,相似度最高的语言短语即为其对应的服务质量评价等级。[结果/结论] 以手机淘宝服务质量为评价对象进行实证分析,验证了基于语言评价信息的移动电子商务服务质量评价方法的科学性和有效性。     

Thornton wilder: Guest star

The purpose of the study was to investigate the dimensions of profane language use in a college student sample. Two hundred and eighty‐three responses to a questionnaire on personal use of “sexual vernacular” were submitted to factor analysis. Results of the factor analysis yielded five dimensions of profane language based upon predispositions to use such words.     

Closing the Gap Between Photojournalist Research and Photojournalism Practice: Exploring the Motivations of the Subjects of Sensitive Photo Essays

This study is the first to inquire about the factors that influence people’s willingness to allow professional photojournalists to tell their stories through the medium of the photo essay. Guided by Self-Disclosure Theory, in-depth interviews were conducted with the subjects of 15 peer-judged award-winning photo essays. These were drawn from the multiple picture categories of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Monthly Clip Contest, the annual NPPA Best of Photojournalism Contest, and the annual World Press Photo Contest between 2013 and 2017. The topics of the photo essays were sensitive in nature. Analysis reveals support and appreciation amongst photo-essay subjects for the profession of photojournalism. Motivations derived from the sensitivity and professionalism with which each interviewee was initially approached, a need to tell a different side of the story, a desire to inspire others or invoke change, and the memory-keeping and permanence afforded through published professional photojournalism.