Impact of Media

Dennis K. Davis and Stanley J. Baran, Mass Communication and Everyday Life: A Perspective on Theory and Effects (Belmont, Ca.: Wadsworth Publishing, 1981—$7.95, paper)

James B.LOmert Does Mass Communication Change Public Opinion After All? A New Approach to Effects Analysis (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1981—$17.95/8.95)

Annual Report 1978/79. 1979/80 of the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation (50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10020—free on request, paper)

Emile McAnany, Jorge Schnitman, and Noreene Janus, eds. Communication and Social Structure: Critical Studies in Mass Media Research (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1981—price not known)     

Library project management in a collaborative web-based working environment

This paper discusses the emerging paradigm of project management performed in a web-based working environment. It highlights how project management and its associated features are strongly linked to fulfilling quality and value criteria for customers, and it examines how collaborative working environments can greatly reduce the administrative burden of managing large projects, especially and almost paradoxically, when resources are limited. Specifically, the paper examines the application of a project management methodology (PRINCE2) together with the use of a collaborative web-based working environment over a number of pilot projects at Leeds University Library. It describes the pilot phase of a library management decision to run a series of major Library projects using project management methodology, while continuing to run other projects through the existing locally developed planning mechanisms and describes the pitfalls of these latter alternatives, less sophisticated project management tools, and describes the main issues that this change in practice has brought to light. It draws preliminary conclusions about the effectiveness of this change in practice in one of the UK's largest academic libraries.     

Fashion in the classroom II: Instructor immediacy and attire

Results of a 2 (immediacy conditions) X 3 (attire conditions) experimental study indicated lesser effects of attire on person perceptions when studied in a live interaction context as opposed to responses to photographs, as has been typical in previous studies. Influence of attire was largely limited to ratings of instructor extroversion, while immediacy influenced perceptions of extroversion, composure, character, competence, homophily, and learning. There was no statistically significant interaction between attire and immediacy; i.e., there was no indication that strategic choice of attire bolsters student ratings of non‐immediate instructors, or that “non professional” attire hurts judgements of immediate instructors.     

Engagement as Co-Generative Theorizing

To meet current and ever shifting problems people continually need new and better ways to attend to, talk about, and respond in the world. All communities can have an impoverished language for talking about human interaction and making decisions in times of fundamental and rapid change. Three current impoverishments are discussed. Engaged scholarship using co-generative theorizing can initiate productive conversations enriching the languages of both scholarly and everyday life communities.     

Parsimony and Model Evaluation

Marsh and Hau (1996) argued that certain models should not be penalized for having low parsimony because an appropriate model for the data may require estimating more parameters. Mulaik argues that Marsh and Hau misunderstand the concept of parsimony, particularly its role in testing a hypothesis about an incompletely specified model to establish its objective validity. More parsimonious models represent more complete hypotheses having more ways of being tested and possibly being disconfirmed. Mulaik also shows that even within the context of the models used in Marsh and Hau's examples, there are much more parsimonious versions of those models that could have been hypothesized and tested, with good fit.     

Prediction of the Probability of Graduation of Engineering Transfer Students

This study examined how retention of prose is affected by (1) outlines as advanced organizers, (2) preexperimentai familiarity with the material, and (3) text genre (i.e., narrative vs. expository prose). College students studied either a two-level outline, a one-level outline, or no outline before listening to 400 to 500 word passages that varied in familiarity and narrativity. Subjects were subsequently given a cued recall test or a 3-Alternative, Forced Choice test on the passages. Whereas outline condition and familiarity had no significant effects on retention, narrativity ratings on the passages predicted between 38% and 84% of the variance of retention scores. Stories were recalled much better than expository passages. These findings were discussed in the context of current theories in cognitive psychology, particularly those that have explored the structure, organization, and representation of knowledge and prose.     

A behavioristic interpretation of language

This essay argues that Bitzer's situational theory provides non‐deterministic causal explanations of rhetoric by recognizing the operation of external and internal factors upon rhetors and audiences, including the necessary role of perception. Understood in this way, the theory accounts for forms of rhetorical creativity through the definition of controlling elements of situations, for the production of rhetoric as purposive action, and for the degree of accuracy or clarity with which observable features of situations have been interpreted.     

Fashion in the classroom III: Effects of instructor attire and immediacy in natural classroom interactions

This is the third of three studies using complementary designs to investigate the effects of teacher attire on student perceptions of instructors and instruction in contemporary college classrooms. In line with Studies One and Two, modest effects of attire on perceptions of extroversion and competence were found; however, previous conclusions that instructor attire has little meaningful, predictable effect on ratings of attributes related to either approachability or credibility were reinforced. Student judgements of such attributes were influenced far more by teacher use of immediacy behaviors than by attire. In particular, positive effects resulting from teachers’ choice of formal professional attire were not supported.

This is the final study in a three‐part series designed to investigate the implications of instructor attire in the contemporary college classroom. Interest in this topic was sparked by collegial conversations regarding advice for new teaching assistants: What can they do to enhance credibility, approachability, and teacher evaluations? Does what they wear make a difference?