Communication research long has noted how pretreatment strategies ("inoculations") induce resistance to persuasion, but a new model proposes that resistance is an integral part of the persuasion process. Using the inoculation framework, researchers showed the importance of threats to an individual's attitudes in developing resistance to…

The licensing of public relations practitioners by government has long been controversial. A survey was conducted of members of the public relations division of the Association for Education in Journalism under the auspices of the division's committee on professional freedom and responsibility. One-hundred and sixty-one questionnaires were mailed…

A study was designed to investigate the consequences of various coding strategies on the semantic differential as a function of responses to an ideal source in the prediction of overall credibility and homophily. The study was also intended to provide additional evidence for the disconfirmation of the underlying extremity assumption of the…

Top corporate management requires communications departments that maintain credibility with the public by developing the following qualities: integrity established through consistent and honest messages; accuracy based on solid research; authority derived from an understanding of the subject and from drawing on appropriate expertise; a…

Among the causes of the recent breakdown of the business/press relationship is the increasing public and press questioning of business, coupled with the failure of business leaders to explain the benefits of the free enterprise system. This failure, caused largely by the direction of business leaders' energies inward toward their companies rather…

Based on the definition of closeness as the degree to which an individual perceives another as understanding him, this study examines some of the dimensions that appear to affect the perception of closeness in dyads. The modes of interpersonal communication which were examined are self-disclosure, touch, and metarelationship communication.…

The determination of assessment content is often made on the basis of cost, political "clout", and relevance, in that order. Three areas of assessment content are discussed: Broad areas, specific areas to be measured, and non-test information. The broad areas and non-test information are policy issues, while the determination of specific…

This study investigated sex differences in counselor credibility as perceived by high school girls. A quasi-experimental method was used in which four tape recordings presented identical career information about women by female and male counselors. Fifty-three career-oriented and 53 home-oriented girls rated the counselor-narrators on a…

A sample population of students from seventh grade through college, seen as a special audience rather than a mass of autonomous individuals, responded to the question: "If you got conflicting reports of the same news story from radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and other people, which one of these sources would you be most inclined to…

The nature of the problem investigated deals with the perceived value of student credentials by organizations since the enactment of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The study investigates correlation between organizational size and perceived value, as well as determination of significant difference between social and industrial…

Studies the impact of children's verbal style, age, and sex, on social perception and concludes that the speaker with a dialect most similar to the listener will be perceived as the most credible. (MH)

To justify expenditures for art programs, art teachers should stop using platitudes about the by-products of art education, such as fun and self-expression. They should present art as a serious intellectual discipline which has content of value for students. (SJL)

Examines the meaning of the term "ethos" in a rhetorical context, proposing a way to differentiate among the different forms of ethos. Explores the implications of such an examination for composition teachers. (RL)

Discusses a study designed to investigate people's conceptions of what believability should entail and how these conceptions differ over topic-situations. (MH)

Career counselors are, in a sense, professional communicators. They help students acquire information, learn decision-making, express feelings, clarify values, identify skills, meet needs. To neglect the context in which the spoken word takes place is to ignore that part of the iceberg which lies beneath the surface. (Author)