Outside factors have changed the role of the school superintendent, leading to alterations in the personal qualities and job expectations that superintendents should have. The outside factors include increased public access to government, new public representatives, more independent political activism, less deference to authority, and a loss of…

A survey of 548 male and female household heads in Columbus, Ohio, was conducted in 1977 to discover the effects of dependency on different media on levels of trust toward government, knowledge about government, and perceived knowledge about government at both local and national levels. It was hypothesized that newspaper dependency is positively…

Two papers are presented in this newsletter: one on the political activity of scientists following World War II as a result of the Manhattan Project, and one on the political activity of scientists today. These papers are followed by two commentaries which compare the two papers. Also included in this issue are news items, a calendar of events, a…

With the theory that social and personal values influence the conduct of evaluation studies in education, the author discusses the impact of two major sources of such values--contextual factors, including political, social and organizational influences; and the terminology, models, and personal values of evaluators. Alternative purposes for an…

Using data from a survey of 330 parents of developmentally disabled children, the paper examines parents' participation in and attitudes toward special interest groups and political activities. Findings indicate that parents are willing to participate in special interest groups and political activities to a much greater extent than they have…

Psychological and verbal abuse of referees and umpires by athletes and spectators was examined in an effort to determine the basic attitudes that contribute to the phenomenon. This research focused on three questions. First, is there a similarity in how athletes and nonathletes feel about political authority and sport officials? Second, what is…

The relationship between the media and public opinion concerning national elections is examined. Trends in public opinion and media emphasis were analyzed according to attention to political issues, ideological concepts, and party identification. A random sample of approximately 220 presidential election stories in the New York Times was taken for…

The social disengagement theory suggests that older people often do not wish to maintain the same level of immersion in social relations as they did in their earlier years. Following this theory, then, social gerontologists suggest that voluntary mutual withdrawal takes place between the elderly and the rest of society. The present paper uses data…

This study is concerned with adolescents' response levels on seven measures of political alienation: powerlessness, discontentment, cynicism, detachment, hopelessness, elitism, and democratic deficiency. Using a random sample of 269 Hartford, Connecticut high school students surveyed in May 1976, political alienation levels are found to be…

This study examines the effects of partisan political activities on an educational referendum and junior college board of education election. The study focused on the activities of the California Democratic Council, a Democratic organization formed to make political endorsements that could not be made by the party. The election examined was held…

As the target of student protests has changed from the Southern sheriff to the university administrator, attitudes of educators and the public have hardened. Today academic liberals enunciate the view that most protesters are sincere and idealistic but that there is a small band of nihilistic revolutionaries dedicated to destroying the university.…

The purpose of this study was to test House's and Mason's hypothesis (1975) that only a weak relationship exists between political alienation and traditional demographic definitions of social position. Such demographic variables include age, sex, socioeconomic status, length of residency in the community, and occupational prestige. Data was…

In an interview at a Speech Communication Association conference in 1975, Walter Cronkite of CBS news was asked a number of questions on the role and characteristics of television news. Among the items discussed with Mr. Cronkite were the following: the degree to which events are shaped by their being reported on national news programs; the news…

This study examines data from several national polls about press coverage during the Watergate scandal, in order to assess the origins of press criticism. The polls were conducted between 28 September and 6 October 1973, during June 1974, and in August 1974. The data suggest that political variables--particularly support of Nixon, party…

This book illustrates how and why knowledge of verbal behavior is important to an understanding of politics by analyzing and describing verbal behavior studies pertaining to politics. Chapters in the first part of the book discuss the various characteristics of verbal behavior: the importance of verbal behavior in politics, construction of…