Virtually the Same: Comparing the Effectiveness of Online Versus In-Person Library Tours

ABSTRACT

The use of virtual or Web-based tours is on the rise in academic libraries, but with the loss of face-to-face contact and direct experience with the library's physical spaces, questions abound about this format's efficacy. Do online tour experiences measure up to those of a guided, face-to-face tour? Do online tours help mold students' perceptions of the library, while imparting important practical knowledge about the library's resources and services? Librarians at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, recently confronted these questions, as they added an option for an online library tour to a large library tour program for freshman that had previously been offered strictly through guided, librarian-led tours. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study comparing the efficacy of learning and affective outcomes between face-to-face library tours and online library tours at Kent State University.     

Being First Means Being Credible? Examining the Impact of Message Source on Organizational Reputation

Research in organizational communication and public relations suggest that in times of crises, messages generated by the organization are most likely to positively influence stakeholder perceptions, whereas those generated by the press may have negative ramifications. Although this advice seems logical, to date there is little research that investigates this claim empirically and directly. Two experiments were conducted to explore the separate and combined impact of print and televised messages concerning an organization in the midst of a crisis. The findings offer empirical evidence that statements from organizations experiencing crises may offset negative stakeholder responses. Theoretical and pragmatic implications are discussed regarding these findings.     

The Big Three's Prime-Time Decline: A Technological and Social Context

This paper is an analysis of factors associated with the 25-year decline in the prime-time shares of the top 3 television networks. Time series analysis revealed a stronger serial correlation between network decline and social indicators than between network decline and technological factors. Network shares were negatively correlated with indicators of social differentiation, and were also negatively correlated with the penetration of cable and other multiple video programming distribution sources (MVPD) into the nation's households (the technological context). Findings were discussed in terms of the impact of social change on both the audiences and organizations of broadcasting.     

Socialization to Work in Late Adolescence: The Role of Television and Family

This survey of college freshmen examines the role of television and family in anticipatory socialization to work. Findings indicate that both sources play a role in the development of work-related values and aspirations, but contribute in different ways. Wishful identification was higher for characters perceived to have higher paying jobs and stronger extrinsic (but not intrinsic) work values. Although causal direction cannot be shown, results suggest that respondents internalized the intrinsic and extrinsic work values they perceived in their parents' jobs, but derived mainly extrinsic work values and desire for easy work from observing their favorite characters at work.     

The Spiral of Violence: Equity of Violent Reprisal in Professional Wrestling and its Dispositional and Motivational Features

Though lacking empirical evidence, professional wrestling has been criticized for portraying excessive violence in harmful contexts. This study focused on the equity of violent reprisal perpetrated by liked versus disliked protagonists with socially sanctioned or unsanctioned motives. Results of a quantitative content analysis show that most violent interaction sequences were over-retributive. Violence that was not part of match competition was routinely initiated for normatively unsanctioned motives and showed predominant patterns of escalating violent retribution. These patterns held across perpetrator disposition. Thus, liked characters regularly aggressed for normatively unacceptable reasons. The consequences of these portrayals are discussed.     

On economic productivity in broadcasting

This is the fifth in a series on the economics of broadcasting written by Kenneth Harwood. Articles on the “ecology” of broadcasters (Vol. 6, No. 3), distribution of payrolls (7:4), “On Earning a Non‐Profit” (11:1), and “On Public Broadcasting for Private Profit” (11:3) already have appeared in the Journal. Dr. Harwood is professor and dean in the School of Communications and Theater of Temple University, chairman of the board of Broadcast Foundation of California, and an active member of numerous professional associations. For a dozen years he served as an officer or director of the APBE.     

The call of conscience,rhetorical interruptions,and the euthanasia controversy

Emmanuel Levinas writes of how the “call of conscience”; is a “primordial discourse”; that “interrupts”; the routines and language‐games that help organize and give meaning to a person's everyday existence. Levinas thus provides a way of thinking about the relationship between the call of conscience and rhetoric that advances what rhetorical theorists have so far claimed about this relationship. This essay develops the position that the call of conscience is a rhetorical interruption in its purest form. A case study is offered to illustrate how such an interruption manifests itself in the debate over the justifiability and social acceptability of physician‐assisted suicide. The specific rhetorical transaction in question occurred in cyberspace and lasted five months; it began when members of a disability civil rights group known as “Not Dead Yet!”; conducted what their opponents described as an “invasion”; of an electronic mailing list operated by the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization.     

Transformational School Leadership Effects: A Replication

Most school restructuring initiatives assume significant capacity development on the part of individuals, as well as whole organizations; they also depend on high levels of motivation and commitment to solving the substantial problems associated with the implementation of restructuring initiatives. Transformational approaches to leadership have long been advocated as productive under these conditions, and evidence suggests that transformational practices do contribute to the development of capacity and commitment. Much less evidence is available, however, about whether these socio-psychological effects actually result in organizational change and enhanced organizational outcomes. Survey data from an achieved sample of 1818 teachers and 6490 students from 94 elementary schools in one large district were used to replicate an earlier study of the effects of transformational leadership practices on selected organizational conditions and student engagement with school. Similar in most respects to our earlier study, results demonstrated strong significant effects of such leadership on organizational conditions, and moderate but still significant total effects on student engagement.     

The influence of wait‐time on classroom learning

This study describes a lesson in which students engaged in inquiry in evolutionary biology in order to develop a better understanding of the concepts and reasoning skills necessary to support knowledge claims about changes in the genetic structure of populations, also known as microevolution. This paper describes how a software simulation called EVOLVE can be used to foster discussions about the conceptual knowledge used by advanced secondary or introductory college students when investigating the effects of natural selection on hypothetical populations over time. An experienced professor's use and rationale of a problem-based lesson using the simulation is examined. Examples of student misconceptions and naïve (incomplete) conceptions are described and an analysis of the procedural knowledge for experimenting with the computer model is provided. The results of this case study provide a model of how EVOLVE can be used to engage students in a complex problem-solving experience that encourages student meta-cognitive reflection about their understanding of evolution at the population level. Implications for teaching are provided and ways to improve student learning and problem solving in population genetics are suggested.