COLLEGE ALGEBRA STUDENTS�� ATTITUDES TOWARD MATHEMATICS IN THEIR CAREERS

The purpose of this study was to identify the degree to which college algebra students’ value mathematical skills in their prospective careers. A survey was administered to N = 144 students in 6 college algebra classes at a mid-sized doctoral granting university. Students in half the classes completed a data analysis project, and half of the students planned to major in a business-related degree. Logistic regression suggested that students held mostly positive attitudes about the value of mathematics in their career, with business students expressing more positive attitudes than those reported by non-business students. Unexpectedly, those who completed the data analysis project expressed less positive attitudes on 6 of the 20 survey items.     

A progress report on the development of an instrument to measure communication apprehension in employment interviews

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument designed to measure communication apprehension in employment interviews. The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension in Employment Interviews (PRCAEI) consists of 5 items. Factor analysis revealed that all 5 items loaded on a single factor with a reliability of 89. The instrument showed reasonable overlap and divergence from the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension. As expected, the PRCAEI was inversely correlated with willingness to communicate and self‐perceived communication competence; Those with relatively high PRCAEI scores also reported entertaining more negative thoughts in imagined interviews than those with relatively low PRCAEI scores. Implications of these findings are discussed at the conclusion of this report.     

A Critical Background of PHILCOM: Phenomenology and Marxism

PHILCOM was conceived as a free-space for engaging in the development of a philosophy of communication, welcoming all. Two major strands of continental philosophy fueled the inception of PHILCOM: Marxism and Phenomenology and its critique of the human sciences. If Marxism and Phenomenology have taught us anything it is not to forget our origins. Such forgetting often condemns us to the mistakes of the past, substituting moralism for concrete reflection. This essay is a reminder of our roots and attempts to point to a trajectory of critical themes in order to reclaim this free-space.     

Broadcasting in General

Erik Barnouw's The Image Empires A History of Broadcasting in the United States From 1953 (Oxford University Press, $9.75)

Howard Koch's The Panic Broadcast (Little, Brown & Co., $4.95)

Howard W. Coleman's Caso Studios in Broadcast Management (Hastings House, $4.95)

Joe McGinniss' The Soiling of the President 1963 (Pocket Books, $1.25)

Alexander Kendrick's Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow (Avon, $1.65)

Nicholas Johnson's How To Talk Back to Your Television Set (Bantam, $1.25)

Herbert C. Kelman and Raphael S. Ezekiel's Cross-National Encounters (Jossoy-Bass (San Fransisco), $10.50)

Victor Gold's The Enemies He Has Made (Arlington House)

Bon Bagdikian's The Information Machine (Harper & Row)

Chester, Garrison, and Willis' Television and Radio (Appleton-Century-Crofts)     

Media Nostalgia

Frank Buxton and Bill Owen's The Big Broadcast: 1920-1950 (New York: Viking Press, 1972---$12.95)

Summers' A Thirty-Year History of Programs Carried on National Radio Networks in the United States (1958: reprinted by Arno Press, 1971---$10.00)

Hello Again (Mr. Jay Hickerson, 6 Koczak Court, North Haven, Conn. 06473)

Mary E. Bickel's George W. Trendle: An Authorized Biography (Jericho, N.Y.: Exposition Press, 1972---$5.00)

Joe Morella, Edward Z. Epstein, and Eleanor Clark's Those Great Movie Ads (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1972--- $14.95)

Ron Goulart's Cheap Thrills: an Informal History of the Pulp Magazines (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1972---$7.95)