Exploring Survivor Experiences and Emotions Expressed about Loss and Responsibility Following a Thrombosis Event

We explored the experiences and emotions women expressed about having a blood clot, including revelations about family members' decision to avoid disclosing inherited risk for clotting. We do this through analysis of in-depth life reflection interviews (N = 20) of women who experienced a first venous blood clot between the ages of 18 and 50 years. Selective coding reduced the data to an overarching story associated with thrombosis survivorship and loss across multiple life domains. The themes identified include participant revelations about living in the shadow of genetic susceptibility for thrombosis. Participants manage changes associated with lingering health effects, and daily routines for work and life, adapting their lives to manage coagulability. A second theme reveals the fallout linked to the severity of thrombosis encompassed in haunting psychological scenarios, persistent emotional concerns, and social discrimination. Participants assumed responsibility to disclose inherited risk, with the women expressing empowerment in knowing risks and acknowledging possible genetic testing mistakes. The overarching perspective was one of hope through proactive actions in occupational, recreational, and relational realms. We offer our findings as a theoretical depiction of thrombosis survivor identity and the need for public health and clinical communication to support disclosing family history for clotting.     

Mapping the Health Communication Infrastructure in Rural Senegal: an Assessment to Support Cervical Cancer Screening

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of women's cancer deaths in Senegal, but few medical personnel are trained to perform cervical cancer screening. In rural areas, the situation is worse. To remedy this, a collaborative of researchers and stakeholders trained local health-care workers in cervical cancer screening through the “training-of-trainers” method. However, lack of cancer screening knowledge, barriers, and a hard-to-reach population may jeopardize the collaborative's efforts. The purpose of this study is to map the health communication infrastructure by applying communication infrastructure theory to assess general health and cancer screening knowledge, as well as attitudes and barriers toward screening. Results from focus groups and interviews show that women have minimal knowledge of cervical cancer. Moreover, health workers report detrimental attitudes in menopausal women. Our findings identified routes for information dissemination and attitude change including community radio and local health talks.     

Envisioning the Role of Facilitation in Public Deliberation

Research has neglected a critical factor in promoting successful citizen deliberation: the public forum facilitator. The facilitators create the discursive framework needed to make deliberation happen while setting the tone and the tenor for how and what participants discuss. This essay brings facilitators more clearly into the discussions about deliberative practice by offering an expanded and nuanced notion of facilitation in action. I modify D. Ryfe's continuum of involvement concept to outline three distinct types of facilitators: passive, moderate, and involved. Using this continuum, I investigate how the various moves, types of talk, and discursive strategies used by each of these facilitators differ during six National Issues Forums style deliberations. Results demonstrate that facilitators are not neutral, inactive participants in deliberative forums. The analysis indicates that the pedagogical choices made by facilitators about their involvement in forums affect deliberative talk and trajectories. Scholars evaluating deliberation should take into account facilitation and its different dimensions.     

An Examination of How People in Romantic Relationships Use Communication to Manage Financial Uncertainty

Money is critical for financial and relational well-being, yet financial communication is often considered taboo, and most Americans receive little financial guidance. Not surprisingly, romantic couples experience financial uncertainty, which has been negatively correlated with satisfaction and trust. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews of 40 individuals in married or cohabitating relationships and the lens of Uncertainty Management Theory (UMT), this investigation examines how people are (un)able to manage financial uncertainty. The study uncovers tangible ways individuals can negotiate financial uncertainty via uncertainty reduction, maintenance, and adaption, as well as information, communication, time-management, and/or sociocultural barriers that can impede uncertainty management. The investigation suggests the extension of UMT to consider the role of the dyad and offers practical implications for financial literacy and communication efforts.     

Experiencing and Managing Uncertainty about Climate Change

This paper joins uncertainty management and problematic integration literatures to better understand how people experience and manage uncertainty about climate change. Interviews with 235 stakeholders from private, public, and non-profit organizations in the state of Washington indicate an interesting disparity of certainty and the role of climate-related information. A majority of participants (n=137) were certain that energy use and climate change are related, and far fewer (n=13) were certain that they are not related. Our interpretive analysis indicates notable differences regarding the way people experience and management uncertainty.     

Perceptions of conflict strategies and communication competence in task‐oriented Dyads

Individuals in temporary task‐oriented dyads or groups must manage conflict competently if they hope to be successful in reaching their goals. Thus far, however, research on the associations between conflict styles and communication competence has focused on acquainted dyads, such as relational partners and coworkers, rather than unacquainted dyads assigned to work on tasks. The present study tests the applicability of the competence model of interpersonal conflict to temporary task‐oriented dyads. Dyads (N = 100) who had little or no relational history completed a simulated decision‐making task that involved choosing two out of four employees to lay off in response to a company's need to downsize. Results indicate people generally perceived the solution‐oriented strategy as appropriate and effective. Although people perceived their partners' use of the controlling strategy to be inappropriate, people rated themselves as more effective when they used the controlling strategy. People evaluated nonconfrontational strategies as particularly incompetent.     

Winning Is(n't) Everything: The Paradox of Excellence and the Challenge of Organizational Epideictic

Encompassing both the controlled messages of values advocacy and less explicit rhetorical actions such as philanthropy, community programs, and volunteerism, organizational epideictic affirms common values. This essay argues that such common values are problematized by the presence of paradox even in seemingly innocuous epideictic subjects. Through a case study of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's “Stay in Bounds” program teaching children to be good sports both on and off the field, the essay demonstrates the challenges of organizational epideictic through the paradox of excellence. It also provides suggestions for the management—but not elimination—of paradox in organizational epideictic, particularly directed at external publics.     

基于网络技术的跨文化交际能力的培养

培养大学生的跨文化意识和交际能力已成为时代的迫切要求。传统课堂教学是培养学生跨文化能力的主要方式,然而从社会文化理论视角看,该方法具有很大的局限性。随着计算机网络技术的发展,网上资源和计算机媒体交际（CMC）为培养学习者的跨文化交际能力提供了一条新途径。     

对百事可乐整合营销传播的分析及思考

随着经济全球化,整合营销传播（Integrated Marketing Communications,IMC）得到越来越广泛的应用。通过对百事（中国）投资有限公司在中国市场整合营销传播成功运作案例分析,研究整合营销传播理论和方法在企业品牌树立中的作用,并对案例经验加以总结,得出企业运用整合营销传播的有益启示。