General Communication

COMMUNICATION AS CULTURE: ESSAYS ON MEDIA AND SOCIETY by James W. Carey (Winchester, MA: Unwin Hymen [formerly Allen & Wnwin], 1989—$12.95, paper, ISBN 0-04-445064-8, with a clothbound version available)

CHALLENGING GENDER VALUES edited by Pamela J. Creedon (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1989—$16.95, paper, ISBN 0-8039-3448-3)

PROGRESS IN COMMUNICATION SCIENCES, VOLUME DC edited by Brenda Dervin and Melvin Voigt (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1989—$49.50 to institutions; $29.50 personal, ISBN 0-89391-474-6)

THE INFORMATION SOCIETY: ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & STRUCTURAL ISSUES edited by Jerry L. Salvaggio (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989—$24.95, ISBN 0-8058-0103-0)

MEDIA, SPORTS & SOCIETY by Lawrence A. Wenner (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1989—$14.95, paper, ISBN 0-8039-3244-8, with a clothbound edition available)

THE GLOBAL VILLAGE: TRANSFORMATIONS IN WORLD LIFE AND MEDIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY by Marshall McLuhan and Bruce R. Powers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989—$29.95, ISBN 0-19-505444-X)     

General Communication

PROGRESS IN COMMUNICATION SCIENCES, VOLUME V edited by Brenda Dervin and Melvin J. Voight (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex 1984---$39.50)

MACMILLAN DICTIONARY OF MARKETING & ADVERTISING edited by Michael J. Baker (New York: Nichols Publishing, 1984---$4.50)

THE FIRST FREEDOM TODAY: CRITICAL ISSUES RELATING TO CENSORSHIP AND TO INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM edited by Robert Downs and Ralph McCoy (Chicago: American Library Association, 1984---$40.00)

MEDIA POWER by David Altheide (Beverly Hills, Ca.: Sage Publications, 1985---$28.00/14.00)

CURRENT ISSUES AND RESEARCH IN ADVERTISING 1984 edited by James Leigh and Claude Martin, Jr. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1984---$15.00)

THE COPYRIGHT BOOK; A PRACTICAL GUIDE by William Strong (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984---$13.95)     

Communication Research

INSIDE FAMILY VIEWING: ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH ON TELEVISION'S AUDIENCES by James Lull (New York: Routledge, 1991—$55.00/17.95, ISBN 0-415-04414-6 hard, 0-415-04997-0 paper, 190 pp.)

PROGRESS IN COMMUNICATION SCIENCES, VOLUME X edited by Brenda Dervin and Melvin Voigt (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1991—$75.00 institutional price/$35.00 personal price, ISBN 0-89391-645-5, 336 pp.)

MEDIA RESEARCH TECHNIQUES by Arthur Asa Berger (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991—$28.00/14.00, ISBN 0-8039-4179-X hard, 0-8039-4180-3, 148 pp.)

THE ANNUAL REVIEW 1990 by the Institute for Information Studies (a joint project of the Aspen Institute and Northern Telecom; for information write to Aspen Institute, Wye Center, PO Box 222, Queenstown, MD 21658, price not given, paper, ISBN 0-89843-094-0, 249 pp.)

COMMUNICATION THEORY: A JOURNAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION (Guilford Publications, 72 Spring St., New York, NY 10012—$60 for institutions/$30 for individuals, ISSN 1050-3293, quarterly)

CINCOM: COURSES IN COMMUNICATIONS 1989 compiled by Communications Library (Communications Institute, Lockbox 5891, 1535 Francisco St., San Francisco, CA 94101-5891—$35.00, paper, ISSN 0742-3632 and ISBN 0-934339-95-3, 100 pp.)

SESAME STREET RESEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHY: SELECTED CITATIONS RELATING TO SESAME STREET, 1969-1989 (June 1990, xx pp.)

WHAT RESEARCH INDICATES ABOUT THE EDUCATIONAL EFFECTS OF SESAME STREET (February 1991, 14 pp.)

“CHILDREN'S LEARNING FROM TELEVISION: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AT THE CHILDREN'S TELEVISION WORKSHOP,” Educational Technology Research and Development 38:4 (1990, 96 pp. ISSN 1042-1629)

SESAME STREET RESEARCH: A 20th ANNIVERSARY SYMPOSIUM (1990, 96 pp.)

CONTACT 1-2-3: RESEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHY (June 1990, 43 pp.)

GANNETT CENTER JOURNAL: “HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE INFORMATION AGE,” (Spring-Summer 1991, Vol 5, Nos. 2-3)

GANNETT CENTER JOURNAL: “MEDIA AND AMERICA'S SCHOOLS,” (Winter 1991, Vol 5, No. 1); both available from Gannett Center Journal, Columbia University, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY 10027—$5.00, paper, each, ISSN 0893-8342)

EXTENDING TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICE TO AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES by Stuart Brotman (Annenberg Washington Program, 1455 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20004—free on request, paper, no ISBN given, 53 pp.)     

NIHSeniorHealth: A Free Tool for Online Health Information for Older Adults

NIHSeniorHealth is a free, consumer health website that covers health topics affecting older adults. The website was created and is maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and features more than 55 health topics and nearly 150 videos. The easy-to-use navigational and visual tools create a user-friendly experience for older adults, their families, and caregivers who seek senior-specific information on the web. This column will include an overview of the website, a simple search, and a review of the features of NIHSeniorHealth.     

Meeting of the Minds: Online Matching Program for Teaching and Learning Styles?

Although there are many disagreements on the major causes of problems in the educational system in the United States, few would disagree that the importance of ensuring the success of our students is not only a moral obligation to our youth, but imperative to our national resilience. And, as a nation, we are responding to this urgent need. The College Completion Agenda mandates that 55% of the nation’s 25-to-35-year olds will be degree holders by the year 2025 (Lee & Rawls, 2010). But how do we accomplish the ambitious challenge and a necessary aspiration to elevate America’s status as a world leader in educational attainment among its citizenry? Innovative ideas and technologies that can counterbalance the barriers that threaten student success must be identified and advanced. The purpose of this article is to discuss the opportunity to leverage the marvel of online phenomena and technology in innovative ways to help students reach their full potential. Specifically, we introduce a new conceptual tool that replicates the power of social networking online matching services to link student learning preference with faculty instructional style.     

Who attends and completes virtual universities: the case of the open University of Catalonia (UOC)

A highly touted feature of the so-called global “revolution” in higher education is the trend to use information technology to reach a broader clientele. Although there is evidence that students may be learning the material in on-line courses as well as in traditional face-to-face universities, how well students learn content is not the only reason they persist to a degree, and student persistence is an important goal of higher education institutions. In this paper, we make the case that the life conditions for students attending virtual universities are different from those of “traditional” students in face-to-face universities, and that this difference puts a particular (largely non-pecuniary) premium on time to degree. With our data from a Catalan virtual university, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), we are able to test this hypothesis directly by using the heterogeneous degree structure of the Catalonian/Spanish higher education system to estimate whether the number of courses required to get various degrees (the length of the degree program) is significantly related to student persistence. The study analyzes several cohorts of students (those who entered in 2000–2003) studying in the UOC and estimates the factors that influence their degree completion. We find that the completion rate is generally low, but that students taking shorter degree courses at the UOC are much more likely to complete their degrees. This suggests that, given their clientele, on-line universities operate under very different constraints from their face-to-face counterparts. Our results are important for higher educational researchers, who have mainly focused on younger populations attending face-face universities. They also can serve university administrators who launch distance education degree programs and make high stakes decisions about them with little of no information on the likely behavior of their older students, and can serve employers who are deciding whether to subsidize their employees to take advanced degrees through on-line programs of study.     

Preparation for Social Service Leadership: Field Work and Virtual Organizations That Promote Critical Thinking in Administration Practice

This article examines how to prepare professional social workers for real-world nonprofit leadership roles. A pilot course assignment that incorporates a quasi-organization fieldwork simulation developed by the author is described. Development and application of critical thinking skills are reviewed, the course objective is explained, and methods and content that evolved during a three-semester trial are outlined. Student assignments and evaluation results indicate that a virtual asynchronous classroom experience is beneficial for students and faculty and that MSW administration students studying advanced generalist practice are an under-recognized potential source of nonprofit leadership.     

A Study of Factors Promoting Success in Computer Science Including Gender Differences

This study was conducted to determine factors that promote success in an introductory college computer science course and to determine what, if any, differences appear between genders on those factors. The model included math background, attribution for success/failure, self-efficacy, encouragement, comfort level in the course, work style preference, previous programming experience, previous non-programming computer experience, and gender as possible predictive factors for success in the computer science course. Subjects included 105 students enrolled in an introductory computer science course. The study revealed three predictive factors in the following order of importance: comfort level (with a positive influence), math background (with a positive influence), and attribution to luck (with a negative influence). No significant gender differences were found in these three factors. The study also revealed that both a formal class in programming (which had a positive correlation) and game playing (which had a negative correlation) were predictive of success. The study revealed a significant gender difference in game playing with males reporting more experience with playing games on the computer than females reported.     

Computer Club for Girls: The problem with seeing girls as the problem

This paper presents findings from an evaluation of the Computer Clubs for Girls, an initiative originally delivered in the South East of England, designed to encourage more girls to take up information technology (IT) courses and careers. By targeting girls aged 10–14, the club aimed to provide members with a ‘gender relevant’ experience of IT, tackling issues of access, confidence and negative attitudes about IT. The evaluation, conducted over four years, included the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from members and non-members of the clubs. It included a longitudinal component in order to assess the longer-term impacts of the club. The findings support the critical view that initiatives based on assumptions about the relationship between girls and IT misinterpret ‘the problem’ about female under-representation in IT, and are unlikely to have a significant or sustained impact on what remains an occupational and subject area divided by gender typing. The paper argues for an approach which challenges the social and cultural discourses that maintain this gender divide.     

“It had no voice to it”: Sydney Pollack's film translation of Isak Dinesen's out of Africa

Through a thematic analysis, this study investigates the rhetorical implications of Sydney Pollack's translation of Isak Dinesen's autobiographical texts. Specifically, the essay argues that Pollack's film uses strategies of transference, redefinition, antithesis, and displacement to renarrate Dinesen's writings, resulting in a depoliticized romantic adventure. These strategies marginalize, or mute altogether, pivotal elements of Dinesen's texts and life, including her complex voice and unconventional beliefs regarding the role of women, of race, and of colonialism. The consequence of Pollack's translation is a film narrative that honors patriarchal norms and cinematic conventions while fundamentally misrepresenting Dinesen and her life stories.