ECA's seventy‐fifth anniversary volume: A special review

In this special book review, Communication Quarterly's Book Review Editor, Gerald M. Phillips, assesses the volume commissioned by the Eastern Communication Association to commemorate ECA's seventy‐fifth anniversary. Designed to reflect the diversity of the discipline of communication, part one is composed of twelve chapters and surveys contemporary research and theory in rhetoric, the social sciences, oral interpretation, freedom of speech and civil liberties, media and speech education. Part two, composed of five chapters, provides an overview of the organizational and conceptual issues guiding the way in which this profession organizes its knowledge. Professor Phillips concludes that, “It is a book we can be proud of, because it is well done by first‐rate scholars.”     

An examination of the relationship between verbal aggressiveness,conflict management strategies,and conflict interaction goals

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the relationship between respondents' trait verbal aggressiveness, conflict management strategies and conflict interaction goals. Data were collected from 105 undergraduate students at a small private affluent southeastern university. Participants were asked to recall a dispute that they had had with a close friend. They completed the OCCI, verbal aggressiveness, and conflict goals measures. Results indicated that verbal aggressiveness was associated in predictable ways with participants' conflict strategies. There also was a substantial and significant negative relationship between verbal aggressiveness and concerns about relational goals during conflicts. These results establish a foundation for future lines of research regarding conflict goals and extend previous investigations regarding verbal aggressiveness.     

Question Bias and Violations of Comparability in Intraparty Debates: Iowa and New Hampshire, 2004

Televised political debates are highly effective tools for familiarizing prospective voters with the field of candidates during primary campaigns. However, the questions journalists ask in such debates often diminish the degree to which viewers can truly compare one candidate to the next. An analysis of questions asked in two debates at the height of the 2004 primaries finds the standard of comparability repeatedly violated as well as a clear pattern of inequity in the distribution of questions among candidates. Questions asked in these crucial debates imposed labels and domains on the candidates, through a particularly hostile line of questioning directed at the viable contenders. This article provides a tool for identifying question bias and emphasizes the need to address this understudied aspect of debates in light of its importance.     

Sources of differences in communication apprehension between Chinese in Taiwan and Americans

This study investigated whether cross‐cultural differences in communication apprehension (CA) can be explained with regard to cultural orientations, personality traits and component theory. To this end, a total of 618 undergraduates, studying in Taiwan (n = 298) and the United States (n = 320), participated in this study. Participants filled out the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension along with Self‐Construal Scale, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, Fear of Negative Evaluation, and Self‐Perceived Communication Competence scale. The results indicated that Chinese in Taiwan scored significantly higher in communication apprehension than Americans. The influence of culture on CA was mediated by independence self‐construal, neuroticism, extroversion, fear of negative evaluation, and communication competence. The strongest mediating effect was found for self‐perception of communication competence. The implications of these findings were further discussed.     

Feminine style in presidential debate discourse, 1960–2000

Dow and Tonn's feminine rhetorical style is used to evaluate the argument structures used in presidential debate discourse. Results suggest that the feminine style element of references to personal experience is prevalent in debate discourse but that inductive structure and use of anecdotes and examples are less prevalent than one might expect. Further, feminine style elements, including references to personal experience and use of inductive structure, have decreased over time since the 1960 debate. Differences were also found in use of specific feminine style elements by political party, incumbency status and election outcome.     

Applying organizational orientations theory to employees of profit and non-profit organizations

Organizational orientations theory posits three traits (upward mobile, ambivalent, and indifferent) of employees in organizations that are associated with communication traits, temperament, and perceptions of supervisor source credibility. All of these are hypothesized to be associated with organizational communication behavior and organizational outcomes such as employee job satisfaction and motivation. Previous research employing undergraduate student participants has provided support for this theory. Results of the present research indicate that this theory can be applied to typical full-time employees in profit and nonprofit organizations. All studied relationships were found to generate statistically significant results, accounting for substantial variance in each relationship. These results indicate this theory can be applied to employees in a wide variety of organizations. Suggestions for broadening this theory and its application are provided.     

The Effects of Communication Efficacy on Information-Seeking Following Events That Increase Uncertainty: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis

This study examined how past information-seeking experience influences individuals’ information-seeking decision process following an event that increases uncertainty in close relationships. To examine this issue, a two-wave, cross-lagged, panel-design study was conducted, and outcome expectancy, communication efficacy, and information-seeking were measured at each time. Analyses revealed that communication efficacy mediates the link between outcome expectancies and information-seeking under the conditions of uncertainty. The results also suggest that communication efficacy and information-seeking impact each other cyclically. The findings of this research suggest that scholars should focus on people's information-seeking experience and communication efficacy when examining information-seeking following events that increase uncertainty in close relationships.     

Agenda Control in the 2008 CNN/YouTube Debates

This article examines the evolving dynamic between citizens, journalists, and politicians—what we call agenda control—using the CNN/YouTube presidential primary debates as a case. A systematic content analysis of questions asked and candidates’ answers as compared with standard journalist-as-questioner debates hosted by MSNBC reveals that the dynamic between politicians, journalists, and citizens suggests that journalists do a better job of getting candidates to answer questions than do citizens in the YouTube video format, not by virtue of being journalists, but by virtue of asking the right form of question. Results also indicate that the CNN/YouTube debate questions from citizens failed to reflect the broad set of issues of interest to those who submitted questions, and instead included a disproportionate number of culture–war issues and campaign strategy questions. Findings suggest that journalists maintain the upper hand in agenda control.     

“It's We the People…, Not We the Illegals”: Extreme Speech in Prince William County,Virginia's Immigration Debate

Prince William County, Virginia received national attention when county lawmakers voted in July 2007 to enact one of the nation's most sweeping anti-immigrant resolutions. Help Save Manassas, a local anti-immigration group, assumed a prominent role in the county's immigration debate and in leading the charge for local government action. An analysis of Help Save Manassas’ newsletters reveals the role of extreme speech in social change. By linking patriotism to an anti-immigration stance, many of the perspectives expressed in the newsletters achieved legitimacy in the public sphere, ultimately influencing public policy. This case study reveals one strategy by which extremist groups make their views mainstream and in so doing underscores the importance of attending to the vernacular of conservative counterpublics.     

Family Communication Patterns and Conflict Styles in Chinese Parent-Child Relationships

This study investigated Chinese family communication patterns, their effects on children's conflict styles, and the children's perceptions of parent-child relationship satisfaction. The study found that Chinese family communication patterns are more conversation-oriented than conformity-oriented, and the collaborating and accommodating styles are the children's most preferred and the competing style the least preferred. The children from conversation-oriented families are most likely to use the collaborating style but unlikely to use the avoiding style, whereas the children from conformity-oriented families are most likely to use the competing style but unlikely to use the collaborating style. The finding also indicated that children are more satisfied with the conversation orientation than with the conformity orientation and with the collaborating, compromising, and accommodating styles than with competing and avoiding styles in parent-child relationships.