At the Interface: The Loaded Rhetorical Gestures of Nuclear Legitimacy and Illegitimacy

This essay examines an important icon of American nuclear modernity, the operator at the interface control panel, to show how the logic of nuclear legitimation in the Cold War has perdured into the contemporary world, and that nuclear terrorists and bomb-wielding “rogue states” can function as inventions that rationalize America's claim to nuclear hegemony. Through a critical account of the “competent” gestures of the state-sanctioned nuclear operator at the interface, and the “incompetent” gestures of the state-repudiated nuclear terrorist, we argue that that the rationalization of nuclear weapons, in a psychoanalytic sense, has depended on rationalization in the Weberian sense.     

From public sphere to public screen: democracy,activism, and the "violence" of Seattle

The WTO protests in Seattle witnessed the emergence of an international citizens' movement for democratic globalization. With the tactical exploitation of television, the internet, and other technologies, Seattle also witnessed the enactment of forms of activism adapted to a wired society. In the wake of Seattle, this essay introduces the “public screen” as a necessary supplement to the metaphor of the public sphere for understanding today's political scene. While a public sphere orientation inevitably finds contemporary discourse wanting, viewing such discourse through the prism of the public screen provokes a consideration of new forms of participatory democracy. In comparison to the public sphere's privileging of rationality, embodied conversations, consensus, and civility, the public screen highlights dissemination, images, hypermediacy, publicity, distraction, and dissent. Using the Seattle WTO protests as a case study and focusing on the dynamic of violence and the media, we argue that the public screen accounts for technological and cultural changes while enabling a charting of the new conditions for rhetoric, politics, and activism.     

Responding to Change on TV: How Viewer-Controlled Changes in Content Differ From Programmed Changes in Content

Two experiments explored differences in television viewers' responses to viewer-controlled and producer-controlled content changes. Viewers in both studies could change channels among 4 different newscasts. Orienting, sympathetic activation, cognitive effort, and recognition were compared in the moments following both channel changes (viewer control) and cuts (producer control). Neither channel changes nor cuts elicited orienting. Sympathetic activation was higher following channel changes, while cognitive effort was higher following cuts. In 1 experiment, recognition accuracy was higher after a cut than it was after a channel change. These results inform how the exertion of control over media content alters psychological processing.     

Cross‐media response to digital manipulation of still and moving images

This investigation provides survey data for a cross‐media comparison between newspaper photo editors and television news directors to assess the ethical response to digital image processing and enhancement technology. The results indicate that television news directors tend toward less strict ethical standards in application of the technology. However, the television people showed more sensitivity to aspects of the technology that relate to long‐standing themes of TV critics.     

The influence of applicant characteristics on use of verbal impression management tactics in the employment selection interview

This study investigated the relationship between applicant characteristics and their impression management (IM) tactics used in 51 videotaped employment interviews. Findings show verbal aggressiveness is significantly related to self‐enhancement and entitlements tactics. Data also confirmed significant differences between male and female applicants, African American, Latino/a American, and European American applicants, and temporary and permanent employment applicants and their use of IM tactics. No significant relationship was found between communication apprehension and argumentativeness of the applicants and their use of IM tactics.     

Exploring the communicative nature of corporal punishment

Extensive research in sociology and psychology suggests that corporal punishment of children is a serious problem because it increases the risk of physical and psychological harm. In the present study we utilized a recently developed communication framework to investigate corporal punishment. We derived two hypotheses and conducted a study of 178 college students. Following established procedures, we asked respondents to report about corporal punishment during a period of their youth. Participants rated each parent and themselves on aggressive communication measures. They also rated themselves on assault tendencies, anger, self‐esteem, and intentions to use corporal punishment. Support for our two hypotheses revealed that when participants recalled receiving higher levels of corporal punishment they perceived their parents to be higher in verbal aggressiveness. Furthermore, they reported being higher in assault tendencies, anger, and intentions to use corporal punishment with their children.     

Effects of Instructor Speech Rate on Student Affective Learning,Recall, and Perceptions of Nonverbal Immediacy,Credibility, and Clarity

Although research indicates that speech rate affects perceptions of speaker credibility as well as persuasiveness and information recall, research has failed to address how instructor speech rate affects student perceptions and learning. This study randomly assigned basic communication course students to one of three speech rate conditions (slow, moderate, fast), using a videotaped lesson by an instructor. Findings revealed significant differences for credibility, affective leaning, and nonverbal immediacy, but did not reveal significant differences for recall or clarity. Implications for instructional practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Organizational newcomers: Temporary and regular employees,same‐sex and mixed‐sex superior‐subordinate dyads,supervisor influence techniques,subordinates communication satisfaction,and leader‐member exchange

This study examined the relationship between newly hired employees’ characteristics (i.e., temporary vs. regular employee, superior‐subordinate gender‐dyad combinations), supervisors initial tactics of influence, subordinate communication satisfaction, and quality of leader‐member exchange. Results from 148 (71 temporary) new hires indicated (a) employee characteristics were not significantly related to the leader‐member exchange, (b) supervisors initial use of prosocial influence tactics were significantly and positively related to the quality of leader‐member exchange, and (c) subordinates’ satisfaction with communication was significantly and positively related to the quality of leader‐member exchange.     

The machine intelligence Hex project

Hex is a challenging strategy board game for two players. To enhance students’ progress in acquiring understanding and practical experience with complex machine intelligence and programming concepts we developed the Machine Intelligence Hex (MIHex) project. The associated undergraduate student assignment is about designing and implementing Hex players and evaluating them in an automated tournament of all programs developed by the class. This article surveys educational aspects of the MIHex project. Additionally, fundamental techniques for game programming as well as specific concepts for Hex board evaluation are reviewed. The MIHex game server and possibilities of tournament organisation are described. We summarise and discuss our experiences from running the MIHex project assignment over four consecutive years. The impact on student motivation and learning benefits are evaluated using questionnaires and interviews.