Prisons,old cars,and Christmas trees: A metaphoric analysis of familial communication

This paper is a metaphoric analysis that explores college students’ perceptions of their families in relation to their family of origin, concept of family, and family communication. Metaphors were thematically analyzed and placed in categories of positive, negative and neutral responses given by individuals. Constant comparative method was also used to identify themes and dimensions among the metaphors. Throughout the results, students had an overwhelmingly positive attitude toward their family of origin and the concept of family. Responses about family communication, however, tended to range mainly from a neutral to negative perception. Additional results, implications, and future directions for family communication research are also discussed.     

General Communications

Joseph C. Goulden's Monopoly (Pocket Books 77135, 95¢)

Bryce Rucker's The First Freedom (University of Southern Illinois Press, $2.85)

John Phelan's Communications Control (Sheed & Ward, $3.45)

David Manning White's edited collection Pop Culture in America (Quadrangle Books, $5.95/2.45)

Marshall Fishwick and Ray B. Browne's edited Icons of Popular Culture (Bowling Green University Popular Press, $1.00)

Don Fabun's Three Roads to Awareness (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Glencoe Press, $5.95/4.95)     

Copyright and Regulation

Information Hotline, “Special Copyright Issue, (November 1976)“ (Science Associates/International, Inc., 1841 Broadway, New York 10023—$8.50, paper, with a discount scale for bulk purchase)

Copyright Revision Act of 1976: Law, Explanation, Committee Reports (Commerce Clearing House, Inc., 4025 West Peterson Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60646—$12.50, paper)

Media Law Reporter has come to light since the brief note in the January issue (see 8:52)

Robert Trager and Donna L. Dickerson's College Student Press Law (NCCPA Publications, School of Journalism, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 45701—$5.00, paper)

William Ruckelshaus and Elie Abel, eds. Freedom of the Press (Washington: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1976—$2.50, paper)

Richard Olin Berner's Constraints on the Regulatory Process: A Case Study of Regulation of Cable Television (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Co., 1976—price not given, but about $15.00)     

Slavic‐Related Pamphlets from the Communist Party USA's Reference Center for Marxist Studies

This article describes the nearly 1,000 Slavic‐related pamphlets acquired in 2006 by New York University's Tamiment Library from the Reference Center for Marxist Studies, which was the library of the Communist Party USA.     

Relational messages in conflict situations among siblings

The purpose of this study was to explore the association of sibling conflict style (i.e., integrative, distributive, avoidant) with perceived relational communication themes (i.e., immediacy, similarity, receptivity, composure, formality, dominance, equality, task orientation). Participants were 186 undergraduate students who reported on a recent conflict episode with a sibling. Results indicate that (a) siblings who used the relational communication themes of immediacy, similarity, receptivity, composure, and equality reported using the integrative conflict strategy, but not the distributive conflict strategy, and (b) siblings who used the relational communication theme of immediacy and to a lesser extent the theme of task orientation, but not the relational communication themes of similarity and equality, reported not using the avoidant conflict strategy.     

Notes on Contributors

The study reported herein aimed to identify and discuss the nature and pattern of the uses of new media through a notable YouTube phenomenon. It analyzed 132 online videos centered on ‘Bus Uncle,’ a YouTube celebrity who rose into fame in Hong Kong during April 2006. Most of the videos drew references from local popular culture texts. They were mostly playful and sarcastic in their undertones. The collective behaviors in YouTube suggest that this hugely popular video-sharing site takes on the roles as public space, a playground and a cultural public sphere.     

Public perceptions of newspapers’ political positions: A perceptual map of Hong Kong newspapers

This study demonstrates for the first time that a newspaper's political orientation is a principal factor used by readers to locate its position in the marketplace. The findings have concrete implications for editors and publishers in Southeast Asia, where newspapers are often aligned with political organizations. The study uses data collected in Hong Kong to create a perceptual map of Hong Kong newspapers. In Hong Kong, there are 25 dailies serving a population of 6 million. Newspaper readership is high. The newspapers span the political spectrum from ultra‐left to ultra‐right. When data were collected for this study, some newspapers were controlled by the Kuomintang of Taiwan, others by the Chinese Communist Party of the People's Republic of China. This study selected eight newspapers whose political orientations had been clearly established by previous research. Some 990 respondents estimated the distance between 28 pairs of newspapers. These ‘perception data’ were pure similarity/dissimilarity measures. Factor analysis and multidimensional scaling both reveal a clear political dimension to the resultant perceptual maps. The study also includes an overview of the contemporary partisan press in Hong Kong.     

Reference and PDF-Manager Software: Complexities,Support and Workflow

In the past, librarians taught reference management by training library users to use established software programs such as RefWorks or EndNote. In today's environment, there is a proliferation of Web-based programs that are being used by library clientele that offer a new twist on the well-known reference management programs. Basically, these new programs are PDF-manager software (e.g., Mendeley or Papers). Librarians are faced with new questions, issues, and concerns, given the new workflows and pathways that these PDF-manager programs present. This article takes a look at some of those.     

Literature Searching in Medical Education: Online Tutorial Development from Idea to Creation

The medical education literature is growing, and the result is not only greater knowledge, but an increasing complexity in locating quality evidence-based information. In 2008, eight librarians partnered with the Association of American Medical Colleges to research, conceptualize, and build an online module to develop medical educators’ search skills. Developing an online instructional module is a time-consuming, multi-stage process requiring the expertise of content, technical, and design specialists working in concert. Many lessons were learned, including the power of collaborative tools; the benefits of including specialists, such as graphic designers; the benefit of thoroughly surveying existing resources; and the importance of choosing technology wisely.     

Evolving,Not Extinct: Music Reference in the 21st Century

As reference work changes dramatically due to computer technology, tangible reference collections are disappearing from academic libraries in many fields. Such is not the case in music research libraries, however. While many important online music reference resources exist, many print resources remain vitally important, and because of limited funding, they are unlikely to be digitized soon. Music libraries and music reference collections are currently a combination of traditional and online resources, enhanced by human expertise. This beneficial combination should be maintained.