Telecommunications

MISUNDERSTANDING MEDIA by Brian Winston (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986---$22.50)

SERVICES IN TRANSITION: THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON THE SERVICE SECTOR edited by Gerald Faulhaber, et al. (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1986---$29.95)

BUSINESS TELEMATICS: CORPORATE NETWORKS FOR THE INFORMATION AGE by Byron Belitsos and Jay Misra (Homewood, IL: Dow, Jones-Irwin, 1986---$25.00)

COMPUTER & TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACRONYMS edited by Julie Towell and Helen Sheppard (Detroit: Gale Research, 1986---$60.00)

Three recent publications from the Program on Information Resources Policy (200 Aiken, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138---inquire of publisher for prices, paper)

COMPUTER III: A NEW ERA—A GUIDE TO THE FCC'S LANDMARK DEREGULATORY RULING edited by Dick Stirba (Telecom Publishing Group, Capitol Publications, 1101 King St., Alexandria, VA 22314---$140, paper)

MARKET AND STRATEGIC IMPACTS OF BYPASS by the Bethesda Research Institute (Phillips Publishing, 7811 Montrose Rd., Potomac, Md. 20854---price not given, paper)

SATELLITE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS ENGINEERING by Wilbur Pritchard and Joseph Sciulli (Englwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986---$42.95)

GUIDE TO SATELLITE TELEVISION INSTALLATION by John E. Traister (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986---$24.95)     

Reviews

Comics: Ideology, Power and the Critics. By Martin Barker. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 1989. 320 pp. £40 hb, £10.95 pb

David Astor and the Observer. By Richard Cockett. London: Andre Deutsch. 1991. 315 pp. £17.99.

Medical Journals and Medical Knowledge. Historical Essays. By W. F. Bynum, S. Lock and R. Porter. London: Routledge. 1992. 272 pp.

The Magazine in America, 1741–1990. By John Tebbel and Mary Ellen Zuckerman. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 1991. 433 pp. $49.00 (Cdn)

Killing the Messenger: 100 Years of Media Criticism. Edited by Tom Goldstein. New York and Oxford: Columbia University Press. 1991. 272 pp. $17.50 (paperback)

Preserving the Press: How Daily Newspapers Mobilized to Keep Their Readers. By Leo Bogart. New York and Oxford: Columbia University Press. 1991. 327 pp. $46.00 (cloth)

Dictionnaire des journaux 1600–1789, Edited by Jean Sgard. Paris: Universitas, and Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. 2 vols., 1209 pp. 1991.

Politics and Reviewers: The Edinburgh and the Quarterly in the Early Victorian Age. By Joanne Shattock. Leicester: Leicester University Press. 1989. 220 pp.

Crowds and History: Mass Phenomena in English Towns 1790–1835. By M. Harrison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1988. 373 pp. £25.

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. By J. R. Zaller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1992. 367 pp.

Le nuove di Francia, L'Immagine delta rivoluzione francese nella stampa periodica italiana (1789–1795). By Marco Cuaz. Turin: Albert Meynier. 1990. Lira 20,000.     

Sustainability of Organizational Change in the Newsroom: A Case Study of Australian Newspapers

This article examines the sustainability of newsroom change through the lens of an ambitious change project called “Readers First” at a group of Australian regional newspapers. Survey data were gathered over 3 consecutive years from rank-and-file newsworkers who participated in the program. It was found that, contrary to the problems usually associated with support for change programs, Readers First received sustained attitudinal support from newsworkers. Agreeing with the goals for change, feeling involved in change, and believing that managers managed change well were the best predictors of their support for change. Training in change had no discernible effect on support. Professionalism had its limits as a predictor of support.     

Beyond Hegemony: Classical Propaganda Theory and Presidential Communication Strategy After the Invasion of Iraq

The “hegemonic” tradition argues that the president enjoys unparalleled power to manage news and opinion during war. This approach has dominated political communication literature on war and the media for over a generation. The war with Iraq, however, provides a major challenge to conventional wisdom. We believe that classical propaganda theory provides a useful corrective to the hegemonic perspective and offers a better way to understand the Bush administration's propaganda strategy and its impact on public opinion. Using a combination of content analysis, opinion data, and analysis of the administration's Iraq-related public addresses, we argue that the president neither dominated war news nor managed public opinion in the manner predicted by hegemonic theories.     

“A Helluva Read”: Profanity in Adolescent Literature

Although the use of profanity has been examined in a number of types of media, to our knowledge profanity has not been examined in adolescent literature. Thus, the frequency and portrayal of profanity was coded in 40 bestselling adolescent novels. Results revealed that some novels did not contain a single instance of profanity, whereas others contained hundreds of often very strong profanity. When profanity was used, characters were likely to be young, rich, attractive, and of pronounced social status. Novels directed at older adolescents contained much more profanity. However, age guidance or content warnings are not found on the books themselves. Discussion is provided regarding the implications of the findings and the appropriateness of including content warnings in adolescent literature.     

Exploring the Effects of Student Expectations about Financial Aid on Postsecondary Choice: A Focus on Income and Racial/Ethnic Differences

This study investigates how the expectations of different types of financial aid affect the student college choice process from application through enrollment. We find that students from different race and income groups respond differentially to aid packages in their application and enrollment decisions depending on their levels of aid expectations. In application behavior, Asians at all income levels increase their likelihood of application at a greater rate in response to an increase in their aid expectations than other racial groups. Simulations indicate that enrollment probabilities decline more for African American and Hispanic students than whites and Asians when they expect to receive financial aid but do not. The findings suggest the particular importance of financial aid packages in the college choice process for underrepresented minority students.     

The External Pressures on the Internal Governance of Universities

Governance is a means for realising institutional goals and in an ideal world should enable the institution to respond to the demands of the political environment by regulating its internal affairs accordingly. In the case of universities, not only is that environment increasingly differentiated but so also is the ability of universities to access it. Changes in state funding arrangements, accountability mechanisms, the contribution of the private sector, and the public definition of university education have placed numerous and varied pressures on institutions. Yet there is a studied reluctance by institutions to accept that their ability to respond to these pressures is equally variable, that they should tailor their ambitions to their capacities, and that their internal governance should be adapted using the principle of fitness for purpose. In the main, this is because the dominant ideological themes of higher education do not support the idea of distinct university functions of equal status. Rather, they encourage the erroneous belief that all universities are homogeneous in their functions – or, at least, that all have the potential to be homogeneous.     

"The New Generation": Mental Hygiene and the Portrayals of Children by the National Film Board of Canada, 1946–1967

That is the achievement of the psychologists. In our own society they are very kind, and do everything for our own good. The tales of what they do elsewhere are rather terrifying. —Hilda Neatby So Little for the Mind (1953)