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Iowa Journal Of Communication, Volume 25, Number 1, Spring 1993 [Download Entire Issue]

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

My Students, My Teachers, Samuel L. Becker

Iowa Journal of Communication

Every year when a new crop of graduate students enters Iowa and I get them in my Introduction to Research class, I try to stress one thing--education is not a one-way street. There are responsibilities that come with citizenship in an intellectual community. A responsible citizen cannot be one who simply takes; a responsible citizen must also give. No matter how brilliant a student might be, no matter how much knowledge that student accumulates, if the rest of us do not learn anything from her or him, that student is a failure in my eyes.

On Making A Difference: Samuel L. Becker's Communication Criticsm, Leah R. Vande Berg

Iowa Journal of Communication

Provocative, substantive criticism stimulates us to think. It creates a critical climate in which better informed, analytical, perspicacious scholars, administrators, and citizens are encouraged to seriously confront the "assorted phenomena of their own lives, their own worlds, and their own relationships ... to analyze them, to manage them dialectically, and to discover in the dialectic creative new possibilities for human dignity and mutuality (Shayon, 1971, p. ix). This is precisely Sam Becker's legacy and continuing challenge for us: that such a critical climate flourishes today in the area of media studies, in the discipline of communication studies, in the academy, …

Samuel Leo Becker, Iowa Icon: An Interpretive Professional Biography, John Waite Bowers

Iowa Journal of Communication

The recurring dream was prophetic for me (circa 1961), as it might have been for the other 55 doctoral students whose work Samuel Leo Becker has directed in communication, mass communication, film, American studies, and even theatre. We all knew that he would help us earn the Ph.D. if we had the necessary talent and did the necessary work. We all knew that if we did not finish the degree, he would help us explore the alternatives and find an appropriate life.

Back Matter - Back Cover

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Front Matter - Table Of Contents

Iowa Journal of Communication

No abstract provided.

Between "Is" And "Ought": An Approach To Teaching Interpersonal Communication Ethics, Dennis M. Doyle

Iowa Journal of Communication

In her article "The Ways We Lie," Stephanie Ericson admits that she "once tried going a whole week without telling a lie, and it was paralyzing.”¹ Such a personal ethical challenge is probably familiar to those of us who strive to come to terms with the paradoxical nature of communication ethics. Perhaps many of us have found, as Ericson does, that telling the truth "all the time is nearly impossible." Indeed, some ethicists believe that there is a hole in the "moral ozone" which has blinded Americans (especially young people) to traditional expectations regarding ethical conduct. Michael Josephson, in …

Single Mothers And Their Sons: Everyday Communication As A Foundation For Relationships And Children's Coping With Divorce, Marcia Dixon

Iowa Journal of Communication

That divorce is on the rise is a well known fact. Also well documented is the rise in single parent households due to divorce and other factors. Although several researchers have studied the effects of divorce upon children (Hetherington, Stanley-Hagan & Anderson, 1989; Tschann, Johnston, Kline, & Wallerstein, 1989), there have been few studies of the naturally occurring interaction between single parents and their children. This is no longer acceptable, not only because of the developing clarity of the work on divorce and single parent families, but also because of recent developments in methodology that make it possible to learn …

Interpersonal Ethics: Aristotle's Critique And Contribution To Contemporary Literature, Ronald C. Arnett, Pat Arneson

Iowa Journal of Communication

As educators, one of our goals must be to inform students of responsible behaviors that will enhance their relationships with others. An important aspect of responsible behavior is the establishment of a personal communication ethic. In a time when politicians regularly change their positions on significant issues, administrators encourage teachers to alter student performance scores on standardized tests, and students consider misrepresenting their experience in order to secure employment, it is important to ask: What are interpersonal communication students being taught about relational ethics? How do ethical considerations shape their interactions with others?

For The Ghost Of John Marshall, Ira L. Stauber

Iowa Journal of Communication

John Marshall (1755-1835) was the first great Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1801-1835) and the author of a number of landmark decisions that are eloquent and classic statements of republican political principles, a written Constitution deriving its authority from popular sovereignty, and the plain politics of the supremacy of the Union over and above State governments.

For Frances Willard, Amy R. Slagell

Iowa Journal of Communication

Hailed as "the uncrowned queen of America,"¹ Frances Willard was one of the best known women in the late nineteenth century. Although she was not yet in public life during Lincoln's presidency, her girlhood journals exhibit a persistent interest in politics.

For Frederick Douglass, Gregory Lampe

Iowa Journal of Communication

By November 1863 Frederick Douglass' reputation as an orator, reformer, activist and social critic was well established. He was widely acknowledged as the spokesman of his race. Indeed, by 1863 he had become the voice for oppressed people everywhere. From 1841 to his death in 1895 this formerly unknown, self-educated slave earned the reputation as one of the most distinguished and celebrated leaders and speakers of the nineteenth century.

For George Fitzhugh, Richard Adams

Iowa Journal of Communication

Abraham Lincoln must take part of the responsibility for obscuring George Fitzhugh's role in the creation of the rhetoric of the Civil War. Responding in 1859 to charges of dishonesty levelled by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the future President denied having originated the incendiary phrase "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand," attributing the idea instead to Roger A. Pryor, editor of the Richmond Enquirer. Lincoln had subscribed to the paper since his days as a circuit lawyer; by poring over its pages he hoped to stay close to Southern opinion on the crucial questions of slavery and commercial …

For General George Mcclellan, Steve Palmquist

Iowa Journal of Communication

George Brinton McClellan was one of the most controversial figures in American military history. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 3, 1826. He attended local preparatory schools and for a short time the University of Pennsylvania but entered West Point in 1842 (age 16). He graduated in 1846, second in a class of fifty-nine which contributed twenty general officers to the Union and Confederate armies. His early army career included service in the Army Corps of Engineers, three years as an instructor at West Point, a Red River expedition, and study of European Armies in the Crimean war.

For George Julian, John Hammerback

Iowa Journal of Communication

In 1862 the editor of the Seymour, Indiana, Times declared that the name of United States Congressman George Washington Julian was "as familiar in the mouths of Indianians as household words; and made so partly by reason of his fearless and effective championship of anti-slavery sentiments." Although today few Americans rank Julian among the foremost antislavery leaders, he played a vital and difficult role in the movement. In contrast to William Lloyd Garrison who disdained political solutions and to Joshua Giddings who received support from other nationally known Ohioans, Julian labored almost alone in the hostile climate of perhaps the …

For The Ghost Of Henry Clay, Stephen H. Browne

Iowa Journal of Communication

Henry Clay (1777-1852) occupied a commanding but ambivalent place in the moral imagination of Abraham Lincoln. Both men held, and held deeply, a number of defining qualities: an abiding commitment to the Union; a canny sense for the right political move: penetrating insight into the dynamics of party politics: a sure sense of popular sentiment. This is not to say, of course, that they were always or equally successful in turning these traits to their immediate advantage; but together Lincoln and Clay helped define and elevate American politics in the antebellum era.

For Sojourner Truth, Margaret Garvin

Iowa Journal of Communication

Isabelle lived as a slave in Ulster County, New York, before asserting her freedom in 1827. Isabelle claimed to hear God's word telling her to travel the country declaring words of truth about the evil of slavery. Thus ... Sojourner Truth. "Oh Lord what is this slavery, that it can do such dreadful things? What evil can it not do?" (Terry, 60) Sojourner felt she had a stronger power -- the truth. "She knew herself to be in possession of 'the truth', no shred of self-doubt, not thought of the possibility of failure in her mission, no fear of bodily …

For Black Elk, Mary Stuckey

Iowa Journal of Communication

Black Elk was a Lakota of the Ogalala Sioux. He was a mystic, a medicine man, and a warrior who rode with Crazy Horse. His story, preserved in the book, Black Elk Speaks, is "the story of a mighty vision, given to a man too weak to use it; of a holy tree that should have flourished in a people's heart with flowers and singing birds, and now is withered; and of a people's dream that died in bloody snow."

For Edmund Ruffin, Dan Lewis

Iowa Journal of Communication

Edmund Ruffin is best known as an inflammatory southern secessionist whose fortunes rose and fell with the South's struggle to break away from the Union. In 1861, he was in Charleston, South Carolina to fire the first cannon barrage at the federal forces stationed at Fort Sumter. In 1865, after the defeat of the Confederacy, Ruffin committed suicide at his plantation in his beloved Virginia because he did not want to live under "Yankee tyranny." Today, he is a symbol of the South's demise and of the "Lost Cause," despite the best efforts of his biographers to move beyond this …

For Karl Marx, James Aune

Iowa Journal of Communication

In 1864, Karl Marx wrote a letter on behalf of the International Working Men's Association congratulating President Lincoln on his reelection. The conclusion of the letter gives a sense of Marx's view of Lincoln and his role in world history: "The workingmen of Europe feel sure that as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come, that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, …

For Samuel Clemens, Thomas Werge

Iowa Journal of Communication

In meditating on Twain's white-suited body lying in its coffin, William Dean Howells called him "sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature." The phrase is appropriate indeed. Lincoln brought the West, grave yet common diction, an interwoven comic and tragic sense, faith in democracy and skepticism about human nature, into the great political and mystical task of defining, nurturing, and finally saving the Union. Twain understood Lincoln's language and vision. What Lincoln brought to politics, Twain brought to the nurturing of an American voice in literature. He celebrated our independence from Europe, admonished our expansionism in the last years of …

For John Wilkes Booth, Diane Crosby

Iowa Journal of Communication

On November 14, 1863, John Wilkes Booth, confederate spy and future assassin of Abraham Lincoln, was closing a successful engagement at Ford's Theatre in Washington and planning to travel to Cleveland Academy of Music for his next appearance on November 26.¹ This charismatic actor had the beauty, "the fire, the dash, the touch of strangeness,"² that could command a generous share of the box office. Heralded as "The Youngest Star in the world; the Price of the American People," his repertoire, including a mesmerizing version of Richard III, engendered a steady stream of admirers along with a rather …

For Ralph Mcgill, Cal Logue

Iowa Journal of Communication

As reporter, associate editor, editor, and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution from 1938 until his death in 1969, Ralph McGill wrote on subjects ranging from poker to poetry. He became best known, however, for his moderate stand on equal citizenship for southern African Americans. He disliked seeing powerful people exploit those who were defenseless, whether African American, artist, or member of the Ku Klux Klan.

For Mary Todd Lincoln, Elizabeth A. Powell

Iowa Journal of Communication

Mary Todd Lincoln was above all, Mrs. President Abraham Lincoln. As the wife of the speaker, Mrs. Lincoln had a unique perspective; more than any of Abraham's contemporaries, Mary had the advantage of knowing her husband's private feelings on the day he publicly delivered his "few remarks" at Gettysburg. Viewing the occasion through Mary's eyes reveals the immediate personal context of Abraham's speech.

For Walt Whitman, Ed Folsom

Iowa Journal of Communication

No major American writer responded more intensively to the Civil War than Walt Whitman. Over forty years old when the war began, Whitman never served as a soldier, but he enlisted on his own terms as a nurse in the war hospitals. Two of his brothers served in the Union army, and when one of them was wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg, Whitman rushed to the battlefield to help out. One of the first sights to greet him was "a heap of amputated feet, legs, arms, hands, &c., a full load for a one-horse cart" stacked outside a Virginia …

For C. S. Peirce, John Lyne

Iowa Journal of Communication

C. S. Peirce (1835-1914), logician, scientist, humanist, philosopher, coiner of the term "pragmatism," and founder of semiotics, is often said to be America's most important philosopher. In 1863, this scion of Cambridge, Mass. intellectual culture took his second degree from Harvard, in chemistry, and worked for the U.S. Coastal Survey. He would later pursue intellectual conversation with the "Metaphysical Club" at Harvard, engaging other young intellectuals of the day. The various doctrines for which he would become known were for the most part only nascent in 1863; and yet there is a remarkable recurrence of central themes throughout his career, …

Educating The 'Public' On Assessment, Content, Gilbert E. Hewett

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

The quality of education, particularly math and science, in the United States has been seriously questioned since 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. This historical event caused a public outcry which impacted education in several ways. Suddenly money was available to improve teachers' knowledge of science and mathematics content as well as money to develop better science and math curricula. Many teachers received stipends for these two purposes.

Along with the funding came the demand to show that the increased teacher staff development and curriculum development did indeed improve student achievement. Unfortunately, many objectives of the new curriculums were …

No Single Accountability, Linda A. Fernandez

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Requirements for public school accountability have increased dramatically in the decade since the publication of the A Nation at Risk report. Schools have risen to the demands of accountability through a multitude of methods such as instituting and institutionalizing standardized tests; and tracking statistics of attendance, drop-outs, and credits earned; systematically informing and educating the public in understanding measures of student achievement. In spite of, or perhaps related to, increasing communication about education to the public, the demand for school reform has increased in urgency in recent years. Accountability does not guarantee approval.

Questions And Implications Of Assessment Accountability, Sandra Moore

Institute for Educational Leadership Monograph Series

Becoming more accountable to the public is not just a responsibility but is essential for the survival of the public school system. Two questions will be addressed in this paper. Can it be done? What are the implications including potential abuses?

The Role Of Business In Sustainable Development: Proactive Environmental Initiatives And Reciprocal Relationships, Jennifer Halupnik

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

A paradoxical dilemma currently faces the entire globe: industry is both the problem and the answer to the future of the earth's environmental health. Business is often blamed above all other forces as the primary cause of the planet's current environmental woes. At the same time, however, business is the only institution with the capital, technology and innovation necessary to develop solutions to the world's environmental problems. This senior thesis investigates the corporation's role in the environmental equation. Sustainable development is the buzzword of the decade. The concept means development or progress that "meets the needs of the present without …