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This article focuses on the papers presented at the conference on communication agencies at the University of Chicago on August 4, 1941. These papers may be grouped under four categories: first, effects of communications on public opinions; second, implications of communications research for social science; third, implications of communications research for public institutions and fourth, governmental control of public communications. Under the first category, the papers reported on effects of print, radio, film and forum. Under the second category, sociologists and professors examined the implications of communications research for the science and practice of politics. Under the third category, papers were presented concerning implication for public institutions. The fourth category consists of generalizations supported both by examples and by frequencies with which typical themes occur in the news content.

The symposium on directions in mass communications research includes excerpts from seven papers that were prepared for an Arden House conference that was held in May 1913. The conference was part of a larger project, made possible by a grant from the Markle Foundation to the Graduate School of journalism, Columbia University. Its primary purpose was to identify questions deserving priority attention by mass communication researchers in the coming years. The papers on uses and gratifications and on the mass media and socialization are concerned primarily with the individual; the papers on national development and on government-media relations focus primarily on social organization; and those on mass communication's professional personnel and management relate to media sociology. A final paper, examining research questions that emerge as a result of new communication technologies, cuts across the three areas. The full texts of the papers from which these excerpts were selected by the editors, together with other papers that attempt to provide an overview of the entire field of mass communication research and to suggest priority areas for future research, are scheduled for publication in paperback and cloth editions by Praeger Publishers in the Fall of 1974.

This paper considers the problem of determining the optimal number of redundant components in order to maximize the reliability of a series system subject to multiple resource restrictions. After formulating and solving an associated zero-one programming problem by a branch-and-bound procedure, the paper shows that the optimal solution to the associated problem is equivalent to the optimal solution for the optimal redundancy problem. Finally, the paper shows that this technique solves fairly large problems with multiple constraints without excessive storage-space requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on certain research problems related to external validity are caused by conceptualizing and analyzing experiments on the basis of classical analysis of variance technique. The article is predicted upon the methodology of representative design. A representative design is one in which "actual" data rather than experimental artifacts are analyzed and interpreted. Furthermore, in an era when the relevance of Speech-Communication research is consistently being questioned, representative validity should become primary concern of researchers in the field. As has been discussed throughout this paper, the general linear model offers significant advantages in terms of its ability to provide representative validity.

The article offers brief information on several publications, events, and works of wide professional, public, and scholarly interest that are related to the study of communication. A study from the National Science Foundation on how various media communicate Supreme Court decisions focuses on editorial comment on selected decisions and television treatment on national evening newscasts. The 1974 Summer Conference of the Speech Communication Association will be held July 25-28, 1974 at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. The publication "Television Traffic-A One-Way Street?" by Kaarle Nordenstreng and Tapio Varis of UNESCO has been published in the series "Reports and Papers on Mass Communication."

The article focuses on some neglected areas of mass communication and the social sciences. The study of mass communication is increasingly being dominated by the social sciences. The present paper is an attempt to outline two neglected areas which may be held to be of particular importance. The first one deals with the atomistic conception of audiences and the resulting lack of differentiation between types of research unit. The second one is concerned with the preponderance of American studies and the attendant neglect of European theorizing. Mass communication research has to a large extent become characterized by an implicit conception of communication audiences as atomistic. First, in actual practice the social science approach to mass communication is primarily the approach of differential psychology. Secondly, mass communication research and especially audience research has become imbedded in market research. Thirdly, mass communication research coincides to a great extent with opinion research. Fourthly, the data-gathering techniques and the facility of differentiation which they offer play a very important part too. All this leads to an implicit conception of the communication audience as atomistic, as consisting of disparate and independent individuals.

The article focuses on the proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Conference on Public Opinion Research held in the U.S. during the year 1957. Chairman Robert T. Bower, Bureau of Social Science Research, will head a conference on "The Role of Public Opinion in the Desegregation Controversy." Speakers for this conference are Preston Valien, Fisk University; Harry J. Walker, Howard University, and Harold Mendelsohn, McCann-Erickson, Inc. In the conference, Harry J. Walker's paper focused on describing the role of opinion and attitude research in the study of the desegregation process. The Chairman Robert N. Ford, Bell Telephone Laboratories, headed a conference on "A case history in the communication of research findings-from University Laboratory to Company board room." Speakers for this conference were J. Emmet Judge, Ford Motor Company; Charles Y. Glock, Columbia University, and David Wallace, Ford Motor Company. This session was a case history demonstration of how one research project, which had been conceived, carried out and how the pertinent findings had been transmitted, step-by-step, through a hierarchy of interests.

This paper deals with the possibilities of translating the findings of domestic American research into hypotheses for international mass communications research. Four American attitude and opinion studies are examined in this light, and their findings are re-evaluated as possible points of departure for international public opinion and communications research. The implications of this study are extremely important to the international communicator. They bear on the basic question of whether he should present a black-and-white picture-portraying his own aims and policies as pleasing and attractive, while condemning the opposition, or whether he should at times admit his side's shortcomings and mistakes. Findings of the study suggest two situations in which it may be advantageous to present both sides of an issue. Since that approach is more likely to succeed with those who disagree, it should perhaps be used whenever there is widespread or intense opposition to the stand advocated in the communication. Secondly, since the two-sided approach seems more compelling for the better educated, it should perhaps be used in communications intended primarily for opinion leaders or sophisticated audiences. By the same token, the one-sided approach may be more successful with mass audiences.

The article presents developments related to education in the U.S. It reports on the announcement by the School of Public Relations and Communications of Boston University in Massachusetts, towards the establishment of a Communication Research program leading to the degree of Master of Science in communication research. The program is open to students with a bachelor's degree from an accredited college, upon approval by the faculty of the new division. The curriculum will embrace both course instruction and participation in communication research at the school's Communications Research Center. In yet another development, the Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University has announced the completion of a study entitled "Evaluating Programs and Personnel Overseas: A Review of Methods and Practices." While, the University of Illinois has announced the establishment within the Marketing Department of the College of Commerce and Business Administration of the W. Burton Lord Memorial Fund, which will provide fellowships and grants for graduate students in advertising and marketing. The fund has been provided by the Midwest Pharmaceutical Advertising Council.

The article focuses on trends in communication research in Japan. Communication research in its American sense was not known to Japanese social scientists until the end of World War II. The commercial media of mass communication in Japan showed an extraordinary development in penetration as a result of economic prosperity after World War I and the spread of high school education. At least four types of journalistic research can be distinguished among the works published in the 1930's. The first trend may be classified as the ideological approach, which is represented by Jun Tosaka, a philosopher. The second trend may be Called historical, and by historical, the author means the unique studies in communication by folklorist Kunio Yanagita. The third trend is characterized by its popular culture orientation. The fourth trend is essentially technical. Communication research in Japan has developed very rapidly since World War II and today even laymen often talk about Masu Komi, popularized Japanese abbreviation for mass communications. Another trend is the interest in popular culture materials. The most prosperous branch of communication research in Japan is the audience and effect research carried out by mass media industries, advertising agencies and other communication institutions.

The article states that as announced in the July issue of the "American Documentation," the School of Library Science, and its Center for Documentation and Communication Research, at Western Reserve University, will sponsor on January 16th through 18th, 1956, a conference on "The Practical Utilization of Recorded Knowledge "Present and Future." This conference which is designed to meet the needs of business, government, research management, scientists, lawyers, doctors, librarians, information specialists, educators, equipment manufacturers, and others concerned with the effective management of recorded information will be held at the University Library and Severance Hall.

The study of mass communications has not interested many sociologists until quite recently. Each of the workers has been interested in a special problem, and on the whole those problems have been practical, requiring what is immediately useful for action rather than what is or will be useful for basic knowledge. That practical orientation has not only been responsible for the diversity of research but also for a notable lack of the systematic point of view that a theory of mass communication would give. Such a theory could illuminate the area of research better than mere common sense, and by doing so make the application of specific research techniques more appropriate and more accurate. In this article the sociological concept of the mass will be examined to see if it may be used to define the character of the audience of mass communications. The mass has no social organization, no body of custom and tradition, no established set of rules or rituals, no organized group of sentiments, no structure of status roles, and no established leadership. It merely consists of an aggregation of individuals who are separate, detached, anonymous.

Although communication may take place more easily among people who share similar attributes and have similar attitudes and beliefs, such communication may be in large measure redundant: no new information enters the system, For the diffusion of new information, the existence of some "heterophilous" relationships seems to be a structural prerequisite. The following article offers evidence bearing on this proposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of media use have given little attention to the possible social utility of media content for interpersonal communication. Here, this issue is explored by means of two secondary analyses and an experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This secondary analysis is a by-product of a large-scale inquiry into communications behavior in the Near and Middle East. An important feature of that research was its method of coping with a problem which confronts all international communications researchers who apply the survey method to the study of preindustrialized societies, namely, how to design a sample when adequate census data are not available and when nation-wide sampling would turn up too few individuals exposed to the mass media. During the analysis of the Iran interviews, important differences were found between attitudes, goal-values, identifications, and expectations of the politically left and the politically right. Extreme Leftists were found to desire a classless society, extreme Rightists desired a stronger and more unified Iran. Leftists identified with the proletariat, Rightists thought of themselves as members of Iran's true elite. Leftists expected their values to be realized through revolution, Rightists pinned their hopes on the expulsion of foreigners and the achievement of national solidarity. These findings have a direct relationship to research into communications behavior, for it is through these perspectives that political extremists receive and evaluate international communications.

In this article, the author describes numerous ways in which social science research training is useful in the solution of problems faced by government policy makers. He also makes several suggestions about ways in which research in communications might be more helpful in solving foreign affairs problems. According to the author, three most common complaints about research operation are, sometimes research personnel are unable to state their findings in such a way that potential users of the research understand its meaning, the second complaint is closely allied to the first problem, that is, sometimes social researchers neglect doing a good job of market analysis of their product. The third complaint is that researchers sometimes fail to meet job deadlines. Nothing is more irritating to users of research than to have a research product arrive at their desk five minutes, five days, or five weeks after a policy or operational decision has been made. An exhaustive tome which covers every conceivable aspect of a problem may be a nice thing to have in files and it undoubtedly gives the author a sense of professional thoroughness in his work.

Focuses on paradox and promise of small group research in field of communication studies. Ways in which all-purpose critique justified for articles reporting small group research is a problem in field of communication studies; Reasons why caution must be administered about using a priori descriptive labels to name variables in laboratory study of group phenomena; Importance of discussion and group methods in small group research in communication studies.

This article presents summaries of five articles regarding the use of content analysis in the service of international communications research. It is perhaps symptomatic of the present pioneering stage of international communications research that only two of the five studies deal with the content of Voice of America broadcasts themselves. For in its continuing attempt to evaluate its own product, the International Broadcasting Service has experimentally sought the aid of content analysis, as well as various other disciplines, on all levels of the familiar question of what is said to whom with what effect. The latter two parts of the question pertain to areas in which content analysis rarely treads, and the very name of the discipline attests that it can never bear adequate or complete testimony about audiences or their reactions. But it can and does provide supplementary data. Content analysis was also called upon, along with other procedures, to help explore the effects of Voice broadcasts in Communist countries.

Two studies are reported that apply diffusion theory to two new consumer products. The research objective in both studies was to discriminate buyers from nonbuyers using the personal characteristics of respondents and their perceptions of each new product and thereby also to assess the relative importance of the predictor variables. In both studies perceptual variables are found far more successful as predictors of the purchase outcome than respondent personal characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the recent work on meaning (often labeled structural semantics) has been based upon the assumption that there is a semantic structure of English (or any other language) and that this structure is static enough to be described and to serve as a predictive device in language use settings. However, a consideration of certain dynamic or flexible aspects of language --namely context and figurative language use--makes structural interpretations of meaning and communication untenable. Certain theoretical arguments and empirical data suggest that there is no semantic structure per se, but that structures are created and dissolved in particular language and communication situations--i.e., that there is structuring but no ubiquitous structure. Implications for psychology and advertising are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketers often take the term "audience" for granted in evaluating advertising campaigns. But Dr. Leo Bogart presents a case against such uncritical use, arguing that the term has been applied to quite different kinds of measurement, some of dubious validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of its audience is essential to the motion picture industry if it is to satisfy profitably the needs of its customers by means of a marketing mix. This is a study in communication research which examines the size, composition and motivations of the motion picture audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promotional and marketing communication efforts of a business can be greatly improved through proper application of behavioral and qualitative tools. What tools have been used to improve marketing communication? How will the application of these tools affect future research and business practice? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns of influence within a given buying organization and among the various companies in an industry make industrial markets complex targets for marketing effort. Efficient marketing strategies build on these patterns of influence or, at least, do not seriously challenge these established relationships. It is therefore surprising that marketing literature has few studies of influence processes in industrial markets. With appropriate modifications, a broadly defined communication theory may help to identity, to structure, and to analyze patterns of influence in industrial markets. This article considers ways communication theory can be made more applicable to industrial markets. One major conceptual problem in studying industrial markets is whether to consider the firm of the individual buyer or manager as the decision-making unit Though some authors contend that one of the other is the proper viewpoint, both firm and individual variables must be considered. It is often helpful to view the firm's objectives, policies, procedures, and past experiences is constraints upon the individual buying-decision maker who is also influenced by his pre-dispositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommends books related to communications research. 'The Politics of Reputation,' edited by F.G. Bailey; Language and Social Context,' edited by Pier Paolo Giglioli.

This study investigated 98 undergraduate college couples on the relationship between potential conflict in engagement and perceptual distortion of the intended mate. On the basis of an empathy questionnaire, it was found that the number of disagreements were related to the number of errors in prediction. This was interpreted to mean that a block in communication was taking place where disagreements and errors were high, and free communication was taking place where disagreements and errors were low. Categories of "idealist," "realist," and "pessimist" couples were defined using the empathy questionnaire. A comparison of idealistic and realistic couples suggested that idealistic couples had scores equal to or higher than realistic couples on a standard test of "engagement adjustment." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the mass communications research in the U.S. It mentions that the said research reveals the pressures and vicissitudes of the market system in the country as well as shows the needs and the strength as well as the operations of business enterprises in the locality. It adds that mass communications research documents the reality of the near-total dependency of mass media to the corporate economy as mirrored in the productivity of the U.S. after World War I. moreover, it cites the opinion of Paul Lazarsfield, dean of American communications researchers on radio communications research.

The composition of 9 natural language categories (animals, clothes, colors, flowers, fruit, furniture, insects, tools, vegetables) in recall from long-term semantic memory at 2 ages (5 and 8 years) was analyzed. Considerable variation among the cats in size and composition was found by both quantitative indices and qualitative analyses. Age changes occurred primarily in an increase in number of responses given, and these appeared to be related to the increasing articulation and hierarchical expansion of the categories. At both ages there was internal agreement on typical category members and apparent reliance on functional definitions of category membership. Category boundaries were flexible for both groups although there was evidence of increasing boundary definition with increasing age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individual decision making behavior under uncertainty is queried by experiments. The subject's task is to allocate resources for projects with transformation results about which only uncertain expectations exist. The purpose is to get some insight into the information processing which determines the choice of an allocation rate. The data contradict any predictions based on a SEU model of decision making behavior under uncertainty. An heuristic information processing model is built which possesses better empirical validity than the SEU model. The model provides an alternative to Atkinson's theory, for it is demonstrated that individuals show both typical and atypical reactions in dynamic interaction. The variable 'situation of an individual' is defined which provides a mechanism to explain the observable switch in the priority ordering of needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on communications as cultural science. The study of communications is regarded as a modern phenomena, which centers on the studies of language and its practical skills. The definition of the study of communication is said to be altered due to the importance of the size of the institutions of communications in modern societies and the series of technical developments in communication. A variety of description of communication scientists is given, including as a sociologist, engineer, and cultural analyst. The concept of cultural science and the significant part of modern sociology which arise out of the argument about the relation between practices is discussed.

Interest in the gratifications that media provide their audiences goes back to the beginning of empirical mass communication research. The last few years have witnessed something of a revival of direct empirical investigations of audience uses and gratifications, not only in the United States but also in Britain, Sweden, Finland, Japan and Israel. These more recent studies have a number of differing starting points, but each attempts to press toward a greater systematization of what is involved in conducting research in this field. Each major piece of uses and gratifications research has yielded its own classification scheme of audience functions. When placed side by side, they reveal a mixture of shared gratification categories and notions peculiar to individual research teams. The differences are due in part to the fact that investigators have focused on different levels of study (e.g., medium or content) and different materials (e.g., different programs or program types on, say, television) in different cultures. Instead of depicting the media as severely circumscribed by audience expectations, the uses and gratifications approach highlights the audience as a source of challenge to producers to cater more richly to the multiplicity of requirements and roles that it has disclosed.

The article examines how communication analysis can be a useful diagnostic tool to identify problems with the design of management information systems. The authors briefly discuss the system under investigation and show how communication analysis can be utilized in such research. The methodological approach used in the study is outlined in five phases including the analysis of goals and structure, as well as a comparison between the analysis of the present system and the normative system model.

This study investigated the effect of group size upon private and public coalescence and associated objective measures of influence and change as a consequence of interaction. Five groups of two, three, four, five, six, and seven members rank-ordered the solutions to two case-history problems. Additional 12- and 13-man groups were used to confirm the decreasing trend in coalescence noted in the largest groups. The results indicate that privates and public coalescence, and final private agreement were influenced by group size. Highest final agreement and coalescence were observed in the two-man group. Adding additional members increased agreement, reaching a new peak in the five- and six-member groups. The results are discussed in terms of an interaction between increased resources available to larger groups and decelerating interaction potential generated by increasing group size, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the reliability of agreement in content analysis. The reliability of communications content refers to the degree of the internal consistency of the data as indicated by an appropriate statistic. The analysis of communications content may involve two kinds of consistency: Firstly, consistency among analysts, that is, different judges should produce the same results when they apply the same set of categories and criteria to the same content and secondly, consistency through time, that is, the same judge or group of judges should produce the same results when they apply the same set of categories and criteria to the same content at different times. Reliability considered as consistency among judges is itself a function of a communication situation and may be considered as an answer to the question: how communicable are the criteria? The criteria themselves and any instructions for their use which accompany them constitute a body of symbolic material under which the judges are constrained to make a series of decisions respecting another body of symbolic material, the communications content.

The article focuses on the content of comic strips as a mass medium of communication. All communications research is concerned with the factors which facilitate or impede the relationships between communicators and interpreters via communications content. It is important to establish, at least tentatively, the theoretical frame of reference as a basis for hypotheses regarding these relationships. There is conceived to be an inter-dependent relationship between the individual's need-value system and the structured pattern presented by the content. It is the purpose of content analysis to identify, isolate, and, if possible, quantify any or all of these aspects of a particular communications content. The Sunday comic strips, reaching an audience of sixty million Americans and, in translation, millions more in foreign countries, is .an important mass medium of communication, and as such, is of interest to social psychologists concerned with the communicative process. A complete communications analysis of comic strips would be concerned with a study of the intent of the producers of the strips, an analysis of the content, and a study of the audience's responses.

The article summarizes some research work on communication which was carried out in Israel in the years 1950-52 within the framework of wider research projects on the absorption of immigrants. Conditions in Israel in that period were especially favorable for the investigation of some problems of differential aspects and influences of modern types of communication on more traditional groups and on groups in a situation of change. At that time many groups of immigrants were brought into Israel from various countries having different types of social organization and cultural traditions and different patterns of communication. These groups were exposed to numerous types of modern communication, and especially to communications concerning economic situations, cultural and educational communications and political communication and propaganda. The situation in Israel at that time was thus favorable to the study of communication from several points of view. Research has shown that various types of communications were organized in different patterns in communities of different types.

The article focuses on the concept of communication development in relation to development of communication system of a society. It mentions the sociological variables proposed by Daniel Lerner that are associated with national development such as urbanization, literacy, and communication. It states the reason for communication to be absent which include the isolation or deprivation of social contact, ignorance or lack of information, and the reluctance of people to join conversations. It says that development of communication contributes in the modernization of the social system.

The article discusses the influence of mass media and the interplay between social values and reference groups on communications research. Group relations are stated to be important in understanding the mass media audiences, especially the adolescents and pre-adolescents. The article states that youth culture sets up its own pattern of values through its goal of mediocrity. Studies indicate that innovation is the mode of adaptation, found among low communicators, in which the individual accepts the culture but rejects the institutionalized means of reaching it. The article further raises questions like what is the social position and personality of the group members who orient themselves towards the values of another group and their role in the transmission of values.

A report of a computer simulation of human behavior in Bavelas-type communication network experiments. The simulation successfully imitates behavior in the five-man chain network, and does reasonably well for a six-man Y net, but fails on a more complex six-man net. Main features of the simulation are described. In order to simulate human behavior, a number of nonoptimal activities were initially permitted in the simulation and were discarded gradually by probabilistic selection of "desirable" patterns of message sending. Results lead one to question the notion of "optimal performance," even for a simple communication task in a small group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]