Highlights broad philosophical issues and future areas of research on personal relationships that derive from the author's earlier work. Discusses the dialectics associated with intraindividual, interpersonal, and intergroup dynamics as well as the effect of the physical environment on personal relationships. (RS)

Argues against overemphasizing clarity in the research and teaching of organizational communication because clarity and openness are neither the norm nor sensible standards to gauge communication competence or organizational effectiveness. Defines strategic ambiguity and explores its use in organizations to accomplish goals. Presents suggestions…

Approaches the issue of whether rhetoric and science are incompatible through a historical narrative of the speech tradition. Draws morals and applies them to the ever-emerging communication discipline. (RS)

Reflects briefly on how the author chooses what research to do. Discusses specific communication research projects that arose from near-sighted, midrange, and far-sighted planning. (RS)

Explores the meaning of the term "communication" vs. "mere talk" in selected instances of American speech about interpersonal life. Analyzes two case studies and transcripts of the Phil Donahue Show. Also discusses communication as ritual and ethnography as a form of communication inquiry. (PD)

Examines how people use "accounts," (communicate their own preferred meaning to explain a failure or problem in a more acceptable way). Illustrates the use of accounts in a teacher-student conference. (PD)

Elaborates on two major aspects of the author's research: the significance of heritage museums as contemporary ideological and performative sites; and the fruitfulness of a "dialogic narration" perspective for the study of sites of cultural representations. Concludes with a brief discussion of the potential role of ethnographic fieldwork. (RS)

Describes the results of a study intended to test a specific hypothesis and a research question related to the theoretical development of the candidate image construct in political communication. Tests the long-standing assumption that there is a dichotomy between candidate issue positions and candidate persona impressions ("images").…

Contends that the events at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant mark the failure of technical reasoning and communication practices to master the problems of our age. (PD)