Discusses two studies which indicate that student audiences rated speeches of their peers significantly higher if they thought that the speakers had completed a course in public speaking. (MH)

The purpose of this study was to investigate undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA) competence and character and its relationship to learning in the basic communication classroom. Also of interest were the specific UTA communicator behaviors that increase or decrease student perceptions of competence and character. Students responded to a survey…

The Media Management and Economics Division of the proceedings contains the following 8 papers: "Anatomy of a Death Spiral: Newspapers and Their Credibility" (Philip Meyer and Yuan Zhang); "A Case-Study Analysis of Divestiture Determinants & Strategies of Major Media Firms, 1996-2000" (Daphne Eilein Landers); "Managing…

Factors that influence attitudes toward a corporate environmental advertisement and its sponsoring company were examined with a quasi-experimental design. Subjects (undergraduate students) read one of five news stories about an ad touting an oil company's active environmental involvement to test for the effects of publication credibility and…

Alluding to the difficulty in explaining the two opposing powers, the "dark side" and the Force, in the Star Wars movies, this paper focuses on the complex combination of negative and positive interactions among children who are best friends. Presented in question-answer format, the paper discusses research findings and needs related to…

Institutionalizing the evaluation function within educational institutions serves both accountability and decisionmaking. One of the greatest problems is the reliability of evaluation in formation. Provides guidelines for avoiding credibility gaps that derive from the characteristics of personnel and from the nature of the organizational…

Revised the Counselor Rating Form (CRF) creating the Counselor Rating Form-Short version (CRF-S). Tested reliability and validity of the CRF-S. Results indicated reliabilities of CRF-S scales were comparable to those for the CRF. Factor analytic comparison showed three correlated factors corresponding to the attractiveness, expertness, and…

Relates how experience writing technical documents yielded insight into the nature of the problems attending the composition of technical discourse. (JL)

Tested college students (N=153) with one of four personality tests differing in face validity. Subjects received either a bogus interpretation (Barnum) or negative interpretation (Prosecuting Attorney). Barnum feedback was judged more accurate and likeable. Females had higher accuracy scores. Results confirmed findings relative to face validity…

Investigated the predictions of social influence theory with respect to client resistance to counselor influence. Data offered support for the social influence theory in that subjects' expectations of others' instrumental behavior were lower for those who viewed illegitimate counselors. (Author)

Examined the effect of interpersonal trust on perceptual vigilance in a tachistoscopic word-recognition study. Results indicated low trusters had lower recognition thresholds for connotatively negative words. They were more vigilant only for negative words. A manipulation intended to arouse subjects' suspicions about the experimenter was also…

Defining medicine's golden age as freedom from adverse comment in mass and highbrow media, discusses: (1) the evolution of the medical image; (2) factors responsible for ending the golden age; (3) criticisms related to physicians' sacerdotal, technical, and social roles; and (4) the erosion of physicians' professional status. (SK)

Responds to the Nader report on the Educational Testing Service authored by Nairn. Major themes of the nine chapters of the report are addressed. The last sections provide comment on the responses of the Educational Testing Service. (RC)

Effects of organizational development interventions depend on type of product organization is concerned with (end vs process), type of organization (input vs output), and field of forces in situations (driving vs restraining). OD results depend on accuracy of system analysis, intervening correctly, and encouraging belief of positive effects.…

Describes a study of the influence of smoking artifacts on the perceptions of a source's homophily, interpersonal attraction, and credibility. Significant differences were found based upon the type of smoking artifact used and the sex of the subject. (JMF)