Book review

New books for the scholar's library

Understanding Discourse. By Karl R. Wallace. Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1970; pp. xi + 150. $6.50.

Methods of Research in Communication. Edited by Philip Emmert and William D. Brooks. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1970; pp. ix + 517.

The Development of Oral Communication in the Classroom. By Gerald M. Phillips, Robert E. Dunham, Robert Brubaker, and David Butt. New York: The Bobbs‐Merrill Company, Inc., 1970; pp. xi + 203. $6.50.     

Examining the role of social goals in school: A study in two collectivist cultures

Achievement goal theorists have mostly focused on the role of mastery and performance goals in the school setting with little attention being paid to social goals. The aim of this study was to explore the role of social goals in influencing educational outcomes in two collectivist cultures: Hong Kong and the Philippines. Results showed that social goals were able to predict additional variance in various adaptive educational outcomes even after controlling for the effects of mastery and performance goals. Implications for cross-cultural research are discussed.     

PISA as an ideational roadmap for policy change: exploring Germany and England in a comparative perspective

Education policy has undergone transformation in many countries over the last decade. In this article, we focus on the effects of the most significant international initiative in secondary education, which is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We analyse two countries that provide variation regarding the degree of change in their respective education policy-making due to this study; while Germany substantially reformed its education system in reaction to its mediocre PISA results, almost no change has been observed in England. As we show, alterations and shifts in ideas of education policy best account for such a change.     

A survey of salaries and hiring preferences in television news

Perhaps the fastest growing area of local broadcasting is news. Few other areas require as much background and education—the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” to the contrary. To attract the best possible people into this field, it is necessary to show them that (a) they have a good chance of being accepted, and (b) they will find the field rewarding. The survey reported in the following article attempts to provide the necessary raw data for this “showing.” Frank Gerval was a senior in broadcast journalism, and Dr. Irving Fang is author of Television News and associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication of the University of Minnesota.     

Books in review

PRIME TIME: THE LIFE OF EDWARD R. MURROW. By Alexander Kendrick. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969. 548 pp. $8.95.

BROADCASTING AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST. Edited by John H. Pennybacker and Waldo W. Braden. New York: Random House, 1969. x +176 pp. $2.50 (paper).     

Has Communication Research Made a Difference? A Response to the Respondents

This response is part of a joint Communication Monographs and Journal of Applied Communication Research special project titled, “Has Communication Research Made a Difference?” The responses to the joint forum can be found in Communication Monographs, Volume 77, Issue 4, and the Journal of Applied Communication Research, Volume 38, Issue 3.     

Promoting collaboration: the role of relational multiplexity in an interorganizational health justice network

Organizations need to collaborate to achieve complex goals. Although interorganizational relations often take the form of multiplex ties, our understanding of how multiplexity itself may facilitate interorganizational collaboration is limited. We use dynamic network analysis (SIENA) to test the role of relational multiplexity – specifically, relationships involving communication outside of coalition meetings and expertise-seeking – in promoting collaboration in a health justice coalition over three years. The results offer strong support for the role of multiplexity in the formation of interorganizational collaboration, indicating that having multiple ties between organizations facilitates collaboration, and that certain types of ties (i.e. communication relationships outside of coalition meetings) are more influential than others. We conclude that coalitions hoping to support successful interorganizational collaboration will benefit from offering opportunities for member organizations to communicate outside of group meetings, because such small acts of dyadic interaction can build into deeper levels of engagement. Additionally, our study demonstrates how network analysis can help organizational coalitions to track and suggest potential partnerships between member organizations.     

The Los Angeles County response to child abuse and deafness: a social movement theory analysis

There is increasingly strong evidence that children with disabilities are at higher risk for maltreatment when compared to children without disabilities. There is also concern about the adequacy of child welfare services for children and parents with disabilities, particularly those disabilities that result in a communication impairment. This article describes a successful community practice effort in Los Angeles County that resulted in the establishment of a comprehensive array of linguistically and culturally competent child abuse prevention and treatment services for the maltreated deaf child and for the deaf parent at risk for child abuse perpetration. Social movement theory is used to analyze a change effort that was developed and implemented by a broad coalition of members of the Deaf and hearing communities. Elements of the problem, social movement theory, the coalition, the change strategy, and the results are described.