Other Communication Commons^™

A Description Of Merger Applied To The Montana State University Context, Stephen L. Coffman

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This article reports on the description of merger applied to the Montana State University context. Eastern was renamed on July 1, 1994, as Montana State University (MSU)-Billings. The Billings Vocational Technical Institution was then merged with MSU-Billings, and renamed the College of Technology. There is considerable debate on campus as to the nature of the merger. There is also potential benefit for students in this merger. MSU-Billings should be better able to attract the best students if enough of these positive outcomes are realized. The final positive outcome of the merger to be presented concerns the public. If history and …

Research Productivity And Positive Teaching Evaluations: Examining The Relationship Using Meta-Analysis, Mike Allen

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This article reports on the importance of research as a standard for tenure and merit for college professors. The reasons for increasing the emphasis on research are probably several and varied depending on the various internal pressures of the institution. Another issue involves the separation that a research emphasis creates between the student and the instructor. The alternative line of argument suggests a connection between research productivity and teaching quality. Research shows not only knowledge but shows a dedication to the content and material not possible for a person that only teaches.

Censorship Of The Collegiate Presses, Serjit Kasior, Ed Darrah

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

An essay on the effects censorship policies being implemented by the U.S. government on rulings made by the judiciary system. There are those who still refuse to accept the fact that the U.S. judiciary system has determined both students and faculty members have the constitutional right to express their individual or collective thoughts to all people within or outside of their communities. Censorship has been imposed upon university student newspapers throughout the country despite the aforementioned U.S. federal judiciary rulings. Administration-sponsored censorship policies have been instituted by those refusing to accept the fact that bad news occurs on their campuses.

A Response To "A Description Of Merger Applied To The Montana State University Context", Jeff Baker

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This article presents a comment on the study A Description of Merger Applied to the Montana State University Context. In simplest terms, the university system merger was designed to accomplish greater unity and effect economies of scale while guarding against mission drift. Change is disruptive but also productive if effected properly. Ultimately, restructuring success will be measured less by an organizational chart and more on our ability to build public trust, confidence and ownership in higher education.

Let's Get Political: Strategies For Departmental Survival And Growth, Isa N. Engleberg

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This article reports on the seminar entitled Strengthening the Unit: Strategies for Survival and Growth, sponsored by the Association for Communication Administration (ACA). The ACA seminar on Strengthening the Unit raised the above question given recent threats to abolish or cut well-established and prestigious communication departments. The ACA seminar provided an opportunity for representatives from threatened departments to tell their stories and share their hard-learned lessons. Strong leadership is critical to a department's survival and growth. Asking faculty members to make professional development a priority is a hollow request if the leader is not an active professional. Strong and politically …

Strategies For The Communications Unit: How Can We Become Central To The University And Its Mission?, Ellen Wartella

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This article presents the author's comments on reasons for the perception that communication units are not central to the University and its mission. First, our name itself is a problem. This can mean that one studies mass media, as I do, or it may refer to scholars of interpersonal communication, rhetorical analysis, cultural studies, organizational studies, or a variety of other subspecialties. Second, this lack of unity and intellectual diversity, often poses special political problems. The political battles across communication programs on campuses is only one of our on-campus political problems. Finally, perhaps at the root of our battles about …

Communication Curriculum Reform, Liberal Arts Components And Administrative Organization, Keith L. Williamson, Sharon Hartin Iorio

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This article investigates the substance and level of importance placed on liberal arts as elements within the communication curriculum and whether the definition and significance of these liberal arts elements change according to the emphasis of different communication programs. To explore the nature and extent of the curriculum, the article reviewed communication programs through a survey of the membership of two organizations, the Association of Communication Administrators and the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication. Prior to the analysis of the findings, academic literature are reviewed to provide a discussion of the history surrounding the organization, curricula, and …

The Differential Impact Of A Basic Public Speaking Course On Perceived Communication Competencies In Class, Work, And Social Contexts, Michael W. Kramer, J. S. Hinton

Basic Communication Course Annual

Communication departments generally choose between a public speaking and a hybrid course of their basic course. Previous research has shown that students' perceptions of their communication competencies increase after completing a hybrid course (Ford & Wolvin, 1992, 1993). After noting similarities between public speaking and hybrid courses, this study examines students' perceptions of their competencies after completing a public a speaking course.

Results indicated that students' perceptions of their competencies changed significantly in class, work, and social contacts in such areas as public speaking, interpersonal and group communication, interviewing, listening, and self-confidence. The largest gains were in perceptions of their …

Title Page

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Contents

Basic Communication Course Annual

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[En]Visioning Success: The Anatomy And Functions Of Vision In The Basic Course, Glen Williams

Basic Communication Course Annual

The success of the basic course depends largely upon a vision that values the course and its place in the undergraduate curriculum, emphasizes the necessity of ongoing training and development of teaching assistants and other instructors, and that values the scholarship that will enhance those efforts as well as improve instruction.

Facilitated by a participative style of leadership, the vision and the process of visioning helps to forge group consciousness and dedication, and it helps to clarify tasks, enabling peak performance. The vision also acquaints outsiders with the course and its goals in a manner likely to foster appreciation and …

Students Who Stutter And The Basic Course: Attitudes And Communication Strategies For The College Classroom, Bryan B. Whaley, Aimée Langlois

Basic Communication Course Annual

Individuals who stutter are erroneously perceived by those who do not as having undesirable personality traits. As a result, those who stutter are discriminated against in social situations, in the workplace and, of special concern here, college classrooms. However, the college experience for those who stutter can be enhanced when they are provided with a communication atmosphere that meets their needs. This essay, therefore, argues the necessity for communication instructors to have a basic understanding of stuttering, and provides strategies for meeting the classroom communicative needs of students who stutter.

Rethinking The Role Of Theory In The Basic Course: Taking A 'Practical' Approach To Communication Education, Shawn Spano

Basic Communication Course Annual

This essay advances a particular form of communication theory, known as "practical theory," and illustrates how it can be integrated into the basic course. A practical approach to theory involves the "rational reconstruction of practices" such that the events studied and the principles used to study those events co-evolve through the act of theorizing and the actual performance of communication. The essay examines some of the obstacles prohibiting the use of practical theory and provides a model and extended example for illustrating how the practical approach can be used in the basic communication course.

Rethinking Our Rethinking Retrospectively: A Rejoinder To Spano, Mark Hickson Iii

Basic Communication Course Annual

After reading Spano's (1996) essay several times, I was struck by the title of the work in opposition to its substance. When I read "practical" approach in the title, I first thought that the discussion would progress (or regress) into the work of Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson (1967) and their "pragmatics," or perhaps even further back to the pragmatic philosophy of Peirce (Houser & Kloesel, 1992). However, nowhere in the paper did I find these works mentioned. As I reread the paper, I detected a vocabulary that was more reminiscent of phenomenology than pragmatism: "here-and-now," "situated communication action," "embodied persons," …

Should Class Participation Be Required In The Basic Communication Course?, Jennifer Wood

Basic Communication Course Annual

This article explores the purpose of the class participation requirement in the basic communication course. In it the following arguments are developed: 1) Class participation is not an effective measure of students' abilities nor does the requirement encourage students to participate in class. 2) Class participation is better conceptualized as a skill which can be taught to students. If instructors require students to participate in their classes, instructors are obligated to teach students how to participate. 3) The basic communication course offers an excellent framework for teaching students the class participation skills.

The Basic Course: A Means Of Protecting The Speech Communication Discipline, Charlene J. Handford

Basic Communication Course Annual

During the summer of 1995, Spectra included articles and news items regarding speech communication programs designated for elimination. Some leaders in the discipline warned that this trend would likely continue.

This article argues that departments of communication, operating under federal and state requirements for communication competency, may be well advised to work toward establishing the basic course as the sole fulfillment of their institutions' core requirement in communication and to plan a marketing strategy for their discipline. In addition, this paper suggests that the basic course, taught as public speaking, may be more easily defended in meeting the course requirement, …

Introduction To Cultural Diversity In The Basic Course: Differing Points Of View, Lawrence W. Hugenberg

Basic Communication Course Annual

The scholars participated in the one-day seminar and submitted their papers for wider dissemination through the Basic Communication Course Annual. Each participant approaches cultural diversity in the basic communication course from their own frame of reference.

The manuscripts include theoretical approaches to cultural diversity, rationales for the importance of integrating cultural diversity in the basic course, teaching tips and assignments for integrating diversity, and an analysis of some textbooks specifically prepared for the basic communication course.

Teaching Communication Behaviors/Skills Related To Cultural Diversity In The Basic Course Classroom, Nancy Rost Goulden

Basic Communication Course Annual

Basic course educators find themselves responsible for a number of new and often difficult curricular decisions that come from the awareness of changing student populations and needs. The impetus for curricular change based on response to cultural diversity issues differs somewhat from some curriculum movements in recent history. Most waves of curricular modification occur after and as a response to some disruptive event such as the publication of A Nation at Risk, the launching of Sputnik, the passage of the GI Bill. In the present ease, educators are not put in a position of damage control or crises management. Although …

Cultural Pluralism: Language Proficiency, Bayo Oludaja, Connie Honken

Basic Communication Course Annual

In response to the growing diversity of the U. S. society, many institutions of higher learning are making some adjustments in their programs. For instance, Levine and Cureton (1992) claim that "54% of all colleges and universities have introduced multiculturalism into their departmental course offerings" (p. 26). They specifically identify English and history as leaders in this endeavor. As communication educators, we cannot afford to ignore the challenges of cultural pluralism in the basic course.

Diversity In The Public Speaking Course: Beyond Audience Adaption, Christine Kelly

Basic Communication Course Annual

Most approaches to public speaking are based on the works of Plato, Aristotle and other classical Greek scholars and have not been updated to include the views of women or minority scholars who can make great contributions to our understanding of rhetoric and public speaking (Gregory, 1993; Hanna and Gibson, 1989; Osborn and Osborn, 1994). The few attempts that have been made to include women and minorities in textbooks are generally limited to the inclusion of a speech or two by a woman or minority speaker or hints on how to be sensitive to gender and culture issues in audience …

The Speech Of Diversity: A Tool To Integrate Cultural Diversity Into The Basic Course, Deanna D. Sellnow, Robert S. Littlefield

Basic Communication Course Annual

The Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education (1991) documented the demographics of the changing university population and supported the earlier findings of the American Council on Education's study that within the next fifteen years, one-third of the nation will be people of color. As representatives of these diverse groups enter higher education, institutions will be forced to transform their curricula to address and meet the needs of this growing constituency. As Garr (1992) suggested: "The question is no longer whether students should learn about diverse cultures, but how" (p. 31). Cultural diversity is "one of the largest, most urgent challenges …

Meeting The Challenge Of Cultural Diversity: Ideas And Issues For The Public Speaking Course, Kimberly A. Powell

Basic Communication Course Annual

Cultural diversity has become a central concern at most levels of education. The term itself has become so accepted and commonplace that we often do not stop to ask what cultural diversity means for our respective fields. R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr., president of the American Institute for Managing Diversity at Morehouse College in Atlanta, defines diversity as building "systems and a culture that unite different people in a common pursuit without undermining their diversity. It's taking differences into account while developing a cohesive whole" (Gordon, 1992, p. 23). This seems a fruitful way to view cultural diversity in communication education. …

Author Information

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Call For Papers And Editorial Philosophy

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Basic Communication Course Annual Vol. 8

Basic Communication Course Annual

(207 Pages, 7.696 MB)

Perceptions Of Coherence And Usability In Environmental Impact Documents As Functions Of Visual And Linguistic Cues, Ronald B. Shankland

Theses and Dissertations

Environmental impact statements (EISs) are prepared so decision makers can consider the potential environmental impacts of a proposed action. The National Environmental Policy Act mandates that EISs be clear, concise, and to the point so decision makers and the lay public can understand them, however, several authors assert these documents do not meet this requirement. To examine the usability of EISs, a 1994 AFIT GEEM student, Jill A. Easterly, altered visual and linguistic discourse elements in portions of sample ElSs and then a pool of readers answered objective questions about passages from these EISs. Easterly measured the effect of presence …

The Nebraska Department Of Communication Studies Story: There Are Happy Endings That Go Beyond Football And A Good Crop Year, William J. Seiler

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The following essay discusses the proposed targeting of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Department of Communication Studies for total elimination. The essay describes the department’s demographics, the university’s budget crisis, and the department’s status at its time of peril. The essay reveals how the department learned of the proposal to eliminate it, how the department reacted to the proposed cut, how the administration established an appeals process to the proposed cuts, what explanation and criteria were used to target the department, how the department responded to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affair’s (VCAA) criteria for targeting the department, how the VCAA …

“I Do” Again: The Relational Dialectics Of Renewing Marriage Vows, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Leslie A. Baxter

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study provides descriptive insight into the dialectical themes of one public relationship ritual in modern US society, the renewal of marital vows between spouses. Interpretive analyses of in-depth interview data revealed that this ritual allows spouses to manage three underlying dialectical contradictions: private-public, stability-change, and conventionality-uniqueness.

Back Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.