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Over the past sixty years, scientists have been warning about climate change and its impacts on human health, but evidence suggests that many may not be heeding these concerns. This raises the question of whether new communication approaches are needed to overcome the unique challenges of communicating what people can do to slow or reverse climate change. To better elucidate the challenges of communicating about the links between human activity, climate change and its effects, and identify potential solutions, we developed a systems map of the factors and processes involved based on systems mapping sessions with climate change and communication experts. The systems map revealed 27 communication challenges such as "Limited information on how individual actions contribute to collective human activity," "Limited information on how present activity leads to long-term effects," and "Difficult to represent and communicate complex relationships." The systems map also revealed several themes among the identified challenges that exist in communicating about climate change, including a lack of available data and integrated databases, climate change disciplines working in silos, a need for a lexicon that is easily understood by the public, and the need for new communication strategies to describe processes that take time to manifest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undocumented college students face systemic oppression, which they challenge through advocacy. Often, research focuses on one type of advocacy, but Advocacy Communication Theory (ACT) conceptualizes advocacy as multidimensional – minoritized people can engage in communicative strategies at the interpersonal, mediated, community, organizational, and policy levels to challenge oppression. Here, we used three waves of longitudinal survey data from 366 undocumented students, primarily of Latine origin, and conducted latent profile analyses. We found four advocacy communication profiles: Infrequent, Interpersonal, Organizational, and Frequent Advocators. The more students observed their family engage in undocumented advocacy, and the more students saw negative media depictions of undocumented immigrants, the more likely students were to be frequent advocators than infrequent advocators. Our findings support ACT's propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article casts a retrospective glance at the technological continuum from which the art history slide lecture springs. The article focuses specifically on the copy apparatuses widely used to make transparencies for art-historical consumption, circa 1930 to the early 2000s. The ways in which these once prevalent technologies developed to frame and disseminate visual materials by means of light was instrumental in shaping the widespread illusion of epistemological transparency in the world's art history classrooms. In reference to the work of Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) on technological determinism, the author provides a chronology of slide reproduction technologies in which artworks ultimately appear as self-luminous technological 'images', or simulated entities that speak as if beyond history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical studies already examined various facets of the friendship construct. Building on this, the present study examines the questions of how the number of friendships and their quality differ between students with and without SEN and whether a homophily-effect can be identified. The sample consists of 455 fourth-graders from 28 inclusive classes in Austria. The results indicate that students with SEN have fewer friends than students without SEN. Furthermore, students without SEN preferred peers without SEN as a friend. This homophily-effect was shown for students with SEN, too. However, students with and without SEN rated the quality of their friendships similarly and no interactions between the SEN status of oneself or of the friend was found for the quality of the friendship. The results show that, in the context of inclusion, the issue of friendship needs to be increasingly addressed to improve the situation of students with SEN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its inception, the internet has been as much technological as social, practical as ideological in character. This article examines academic discourse and asks how research on the multifaceted internet has evolved over the past 25 years. In order to investigate the formation of this academic field, we collected articles published in major academic journals dedicated to new media and digital communication as well as mainstream periodicals in communication studies over the past quarter of a century. Relying on a combination of (semi)automated content analysis and citation analysis, we find that articles related to the internet and its manifold aspects are cited more often than research on other topics. The literature review suggests that as the socio-material infrastructure of the internet has become deeply enmeshed in society its study has evolved from a niche pursuit to the discipline's core area of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the rise of social media, many more scientists are becoming public communicators. In politicized fields such as climate science, these communications can attract disproportionate attention. The author argues that public statements in such a situation are inevitably advocacy for some position, view, or outcome. However, rather than suggesting that scientists avoid advocacy in a misplaced attempt to remain objective, he recommends that scientists be explicit about the combination of values and science that drives their views, and discusses the ways scientists can ensure that their advocacy remains responsible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: Children with significant hearing loss (HL) are at risk for lower self-esteem and lower perceived quality of life (QoL). This study examined how self-reported QoL of adolescents cochlear implant (CI) users compared to that of adolescents with normal hearing, and examined if factors such as socioeconomic status (SES) and communication methodology affect QoL and speech recognition. Methods: Forty-three adolescent CI users completed a 34-item questionnaire that included questions adapted from the QoL of Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Youth questionnaire (Seattle Quality of Life Group SEAQOL. 2010 Quality of life of deaf or hard-of-hearing youth (YQOL-DHH). Seattle, Washington) and from the Kidscreen-10 Index (The KIDSCREEN Group, Europe, 2006, the KIDSCREEN questionnaires - quality of life questionnaires for children and adolescents handbook. Lengerich: Pabst Science Publishers. All subjects received their first CI prior to the age of 5, and ranged in age from 10-17 years at the time of survey completion. Results: Adolescents with CIs demonstrated self-reported QoL scores similar to children with normal hearing. Lower SES and communication mode appear to influence speech recognition, and also appear to impact self-reported QoL in different ways. Conclusions: Examination of communication outcomes, along with other factors that influence QoL, such as SES, will help clinicians identify children at risk for low QoL. Such identification will help generate appropriate referrals to enhance QoL in adolescent CI users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This critical communication pedagogy study consists of a cripistemological analysis of two prominent communication theory textbooks to better understand the nondisableist assumptions embedded within these textbooks and, by extension, our field's theories. Conceiving of the university classroom as an educational cultural performance, this study positions these textbooks to be scripts. Imitating the vignette-to-application format found in these communication theory textbooks, the study offers three new vignettes that center disability. Each vignette provides new insight into its corresponding communication theory: uncertainty reduction theory, sensemaking theory, and structuration theory. By inflecting the crip, the corresponding analyses provide lessons into the enactment of our theories within the educational cultural performances of our classrooms. Each is told from a crip perspective that rescripts compulsory nondisableist discourses to better understand crip as humanity, as evolutionarily superior, and as universal. This study helps model how to explore, explain, and refute embedded nondisableist assumptions within and across our field's knowledge bases, as found in textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instructors use humor in the classroom in numerous ways, including behaving stupidly, offering impersonations, manipulating their nonverbals, telling a story, joke, or pun, and using a costume or prop. How students decode their instructors' use of humor impacts their feelings about the course and their instructors. In this study, we investigated students' (N = 306) perceptions of their humor homophily with their instructors, as well as their overall view of the appropriateness of the instructor's classroom communication. Humor homophily was positively related to instructor humorousness, students' affect for their instructor, and their likelihood of enrolling in another class with their instructor. We also found that the intensity of instructor humorousness' relationship with student affect decreased when students perceived their instructor as appropriate. However, the more students found their instructors to be humorous and reported humor homophily, the more appropriate students rated their instructors' communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on assessing airline environmental efficiency with network structure and build a three-stage efficiency production process. Then, we propose a new model, network range-adjusted measure with weak-G disposability, to measure the environmental efficiency of 29 global airlines based on the data from 2008 to 2015. Finally, a second-stage regression analysis is done to explore the important influencing factors. The main findings are as follows: (1) Eva Air is the airline with the highest efficiency among these 29 airlines; (2) Delta is at the bottom of the efficiency ranking among the 29 airlines and this result is in correlation with its old aircraft fleet; (3) the average efficiency change index in 2014 is the highest in the period 2009-2015; (4) only average fleet age has a slightly significant impact on the overall efficiency and Services efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from image repair theory and situational crisis communication theory, this study advances crisis communication theory by analyzing nearly 800 public relations professionals' perceptions of 15 image repair strategies. A national sample of US public relations professionals evaluated communication strategies for their effectiveness and preference for use in three crisis scenarios (accidents, product safety, and illegal activity). Compensation, corrective action, and mortification were the most highly ranked crisis response strategies, regardless of attribution of organizational responsibility or culpability, across 3 different types of accidental and preventable crises. This hierarchical consistency suggests that using communication strategies for maintaining and strengthening an organization's relationships with its publics may be the best protection for sustaining and repairing positive reputation long-term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examined philanthropy ad messages in terms of four key elements: philanthropy goal, beneficiary, expected fundraising impact, and how the suggested donation is appraised. A content analysis was carried out to systematically study ad messages from nonprofit organizations on the Philanthropy 400 list. Specifically, the frequency of appearance of each type of message elements was analyzed in terms of four theoretical concepts: regulatory focus (promotion vs. prevention goal), egoism/altruism (self vs. others as beneficiary), temporal orientation (present vs. future fundraising impact), and efficacy appraisal (self- vs. response-efficacy in how a donation is appraised). Since past research further suggests that persuasion may be enhanced when message elements are well matched in terms of “compatible fits,” this study further analyzed how the four message elements were combined in usage. The findings of this research show that while most nonprofit organizations actively utilized all four types of elements in their messages, the current practice did not follow the guidelines as would be suggested by compatible fits literature. In this respect, more research is needed to understand the discrepancy and provide better guidelines for future communication strategies in the nonprofit sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food and beverage are growing tourism niches and have yet to realize their potential in Central America. This study explores how culinary tourism is promoted in official tourism websites of Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama. Through a qualitative content analysis, this study examines how the websites introduce and promote traditional and local foods, restaurants, culinary tours, food festivals, recipes, and food safety. This study assesses the culinary tourism marketing strategies, including text and image, and provides practical suggestions for promoting food-related information through these platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We set up an opinion diffusion model with a local opinion leader, and using simulations we show the possibility of driving a significant wedge between the opinions of two groups that exhibit homophily although individuals are highly conformist. There exists an opinion gap between the group to which the opinion leader belongs and the other group. This opinion gap increases according to the relative size of the residence community. We show empirical traits related to our simulation: Employing Swiss national referenda data from 2008 to 2012, we show that members of parliament match referenda outcomes in their residence communities closer than they do in neighboring communities and that this wedge interacts significantly with the relative size of the residence community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Differences in tourists’ cultural values are significant factors in their product and service choices, yet they have generally been neglected in the literature. Therefore, this study examined how tourists’ nationalities influence their perceptions of service quality, affective image perceptions, and revisiting intentions. Activities were found to be more determinant on a destination’s affective image for Russian tourists, whereas accommodation, hospitality, and language communication services had a larger effect on German tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems, the messages that a user types usually persist on the screen for some time, a feature that distinguishes CMC from face-to-face interaction. Persistence may activate psychological self-perception, leading communicators to infer from their persistent messaging how they feel about the subject more so than if messages did not persist. This study applies persistence and self-perception to the relationships between self-disclosure and liking. It identifies which among several disclosure or liking relationships may be most susceptible to self-perception effects. An experiment found that message persistence interacts with a conversational partner’s responses to self-disclosure and intensifies liking toward the partner. Suggestions follow for future research further exploring the mechanisms of persistence, and reconceptualizing self-perception factors in interactive media settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the relationships that emerge amongst caregivers of persons with dementia and stroke when caregivers use written messages as their communication tool in a closed information and communication technology (ICT)-based support group.Methods: An explorative design with a qualitative approach was used that applied systematic text condensation (STC) to analyse 173 written messages extracted from a web forum.Results: Empathetic, empowering and familiar relationships emerged amongst peers of older caregivers when the caregivers used written messages as their communication tool. The empathetic relationship was characterised by sincerity and openness when the caregivers shared emotions related to caregiving. The empowering relationship reflected a fellowship based on solidarity influenced by a sense of optimism and a willingness to share knowledge to support one another in overcoming challenges. In the familiar relationship, the caregivers were thoughtful and good-humoured with one another and displayed an attitude of consideration towards one another, as in an extended family.Practice Implication: The use of computer-mediated communication in health care service will change the context of establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Therefore, greater knowledge regarding how the peers of caregivers interact with one another is vital so nurses may better support and educate ICT-based support groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the architecture and functionalities of the central server (CENTER) of the distributed system for the Polish Border Guard (BG) for monitoring maritime areas. The overall system has been extended to incorporate, apart from map data, also different multimedia elements such as video from cameras or audio from telephone connections operated by BG units. This requires new system elements: Archive Servers for storing new types of data and Events Visualization Post for the presentation of new media along with the presentation of ongoing or archival tactical situations on maps. The paper focuses on new functionalities of the CENTER and integration of new elements with the rest of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the educational experiences of South Asian Muslim women have been studied, little is known regarding the role of technology and its effects on education in this population. This study explores the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in British Muslim girls’ schools and its effect on learning. It uses primary data from semi-structured interviews with 14–19-year-olds in three Islamic faith schools. Template analysis was used to identify emerging themes. Participants had access to a wide range of technologies and applications; however, access was often limited to classroom settings. Participants also used subject-specific resources available from learning platforms, although this was not consistent across schools and subjects. The participants felt that the range of resources was limited because of their gender and religion, and wanted greater access to ICT, and more online collaboration and social communication. A didactic approach to instruction was prevalent and for many, exacerbated a ‘digital disconnect’. Our findings suggest that Islamic faith schools reinforce lack of home ICT use. The current didactic approach highlights differences with the student-centred pedagogical techniques of early Qur’anic schools. This study encourages a discussion of the challenges of open access to information, religious freedoms and ensuring equality of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Metaphors could be used to help older adults build mental models of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications and services and thereby reduce the number of interaction problems, but currently, metaphors generally are not tailored to these older adults, and their construction remains vague. Inspired by concrete icons, this study proposes concrete metaphors to help novice older adults understand ICT applications and services and retains their knowledge over time. A new communication application based on concrete metaphors was designed, developed, and comparatively tested against another application based on abstract metaphors over a period of 9 days. The results indicated that the application with concrete metaphors contributed to fewer perception and cognition errors, higher usage intention, higher satisfaction, and higher preference compared to the application with abstract metaphors. In addition, the advantage of concrete metaphors was lasting, unlike concrete icons. These findings indicated that concrete metaphors could be an icebreaker or stepping stone to draw novice older adults into the information society. To further increase the impact of concrete metaphors, representing real-world operations is an essential challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article characterizes actuation techniques for generating movement in shape-changing displays with physically reconfigurable geometry. To date, few works in human–computer interaction literature provide detailed and reflective descriptions of the implementation techniques used in shape-changing displays. This hinders the rapid development of novel interactions as researchers must initially spend time understanding technologies before prototyping new interactions and applications. To bridge this knowledge gap, the authors propose a taxonomy that classifies actuator characteristics and simplifies the process for designers to select appropriate technologies that match their requirements for developing shape displays. They scope the investigation to linear actuators that are used in grid configurations. The taxonomy is validated by (a) examining current implementation techniques of motorized, pneumatic, hydraulic, magnetic, and shape-memory actuators in the literature, (b) constructing prototypes to address limited technical details and explore actuator capabilities in depth, (c) describing a use-case scenario through a case study that details the construction of a 10 × 10 actuator shape-display, and (d) a set of guidelines to aid researchers in selecting actuation techniques for shape-changing applications. The significance of their taxonomy is twofold. First, the authors provide an original contribution that enables HCI researchers to appropriately select actuation techniques and build shape-changing applications. This is situated amongst other past works that have investigated broader application scenarios such as a shape-changing vocabulary, a framework for shape transformations, material properties, and technical characteristics of various actuators. Second, they carry out in-depth investigations to validate their taxonomy and expand the knowledge of vertical actuation in shape-changing applications to enable rapid development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I flesh out an account of the inferential basing relation using a theory about how humans reason: the mental models theory. I critically assess some of the notions that are used by that theory to account for inferential phenomena. To the extent that the mental models theory is well confirmed, that account of basing would be motivated on empirical grounds. This work illustrates how epistemologists could offer explications of the basing relation which are more detailed and less empirically risky. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study contributes to the study of educational and occupational homophily in marital and friendship relations in Poland. Using data from the most recent installment of an ongoing longitudinal study, the article adds to the existing body of findings on the topic and also (a) applies a novel conceptual framework to the data to obtain estimates of homophily for the different characteristics and relations, and (b) tests hypotheses specifying a link between the amount of homophily and the overall degree of inequality. The conceptual framework models homophily in terms of the probability that a member of a given group will reject an out-group member as an associate. The hypotheses build on work on the so-called Matthew effect by Slomczynski et al. (2007) and a theoretical argument derived from status and exchange theories. Empirical analyses presented in the second part of the study suggest that there has been some change in the degree of homophily, but the magnitude of that change depends on the distance separating the categories: while the estimates of the rejection probabilities for relations between distant categories are more or less stable across the period under study, we observe a decrease in homophily in social associations between categories that are close to one another in the social hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Urban infrastructure in the United States is ageing, but media portrayal of this phenomena has been insufficient. Failures such as water main breaks are a daily occurrence in many cities. In addition, citizens are regularly reminded of the costs through increases in water and sewer rates. To explore media discourse on this issue, a content analysis of print media articles on water main breaks (Breaks), and water and sewer rate increases (Rates) for the period 1999–2012 was conducted. The analysis of approximately 500 randomly drawn articles on each topic found that media coverage of water infrastructure is an episodic affair with little attention to ongoing issues. Rates articles contained more details and a focus on governance, while Breaks articles addressed business concerns and were concentrated in older cities. The article concludes that media stories are not providing sufficient information to serve the needs of democratic governance of urban infrastructure issues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A content analysis of the coverage of the major approaches to early childhood education in the early childhood research journals, published between 2010 and 2014, that are early childhood research oriented and have free online access were investigated. Among 21 journals in early childhood education, two journals were selected for the content analysis of the major approaches to early childhood education: Early Childhood Research and Practice and International Research in Early Childhood Education. These early childhood journals are the only journals that are fully online and available for free. The results showed that Head Start was the most frequently used approach that appeared in these journals followed by Reggio Emilia. The theory of Internet Information Gatekeepers guided this current research's theoretical framework. A brief overview of each approach was provided along with the significance of the study. Concerns about the ways approaches were mentioned in the studies were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the importance of a forum on the pedagogical issues surrounding the Learning Outcome in Communication (LOC) grant project supported by the National Communication Association (NCA). Topics addressed include the prejudice among communication scholars as teachers, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the role of teacher-scholars in emphasizing the pertinence of teaching communication outcomes.

This study provides a first look into how learning motivations are associated with different ways that students use mobile devices to carry on multiple conversations—multicommunicate—while in class. We use self-determination theory to make predictions linking intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation, to classroom mobile device use. The resulting models find that intrinsic motivation to experience stimulation is associated with students multicommunicating to gain and relay understanding during class, to influence others, and for social support reasons. Individual multitasking desires and extrinsic motivation regulated through identification are linked to why people want to remain available while attending class. Amotivation explains why students multicommunicate for distraction reasons. This study opens the door for instructional communication scholars to more closely examinewhatstudents are doing when they use mobile devices in class. It appears that students who are intrinsically motivated, actively participating in class, and have a high desire to multitask, are the students using their mobile devices in class for potentially positive communicative classroom behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Accelerated rates of global migration over the past 20 years have seen dramatic increases in demographic, cultural and social diversity in the world's most developed countries. Scholars of migration are faced with the challenge of understanding a society that consists of countless socio-cultural frontiers, along which the contrasting and often conflicting practices and values of diverse populations collide. These circumstances require the development of a theoretical framework that elucidates the practices through which these cultural collisions and conflicts are actualised and addressed, illuminating the day to day challenges of living with difference. This article proposes structuration theory as an insightful analytical prism that can afford new in-depth perspectives into intercultural engagements. By exploring the confluence between structural factors and the actions of individual agents, structuration theory illuminates the choices made by members of migrant groups regarding socio-cultural affiliations, as well as highlighting the strategic processes and behaviours through which these choices are actualised. A discussion of empirical research with Muslim youth in the west of Ireland illustrates the analytical clarity that structuration theory can offer to debates on integration and interculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The unforeseen trials of arts-based research may suppress creative and innovative explorations. Photovoice, a visual method of investigation employing participatory photography, presents a host of apprehensions. Yet, photovoice is both a valid and rich methodology that can greatly expand the reach and scope of applied communication research. In this essay, we – three applied communication researchers – discuss the complexities of photovoice, highlighting areas of consideration that interested researchers should contemplate before utilizing this methodology. Briefly exploring three of our research studies and their varying topics (i.e. long-term cancer survivors, domestic violence organizational advocacy, male body culture), we discuss three broad areas of difficulty in photovoice research: analysis, control, and exposure. Despite the unique obstacles that photovoice presents, we argue that it, along with other forms of arts-based research, are profitable and definitely worth the challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on a carefully selected list of references in Spanish, the following text presents a brief history of the magic lantern in Spain, from its invention to the beginning of its decadence as a social medium of communication. The magic lantern emerged in the seventeenth century, with the application of a series of physical principles that allowed the first attempts and experiences of image projection, such as the one described by Juana Inés de la Cruz in Sueño, a silva strophe published in Seville in 1692. As a device, the magic lantern finally was consolidated during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, mainly due to the popular sessions of phantasmagorias, which, in Spain, were run by projectionists such as Juan González Mantilla, or Robertson himself. After the magic lantern became institutionalized and commercialized throughout the whole Iberian Peninsula—the same as in the rest of Europe—its decline took place in the last decade of the nineteenth century, when it had to compete with the cinematograph. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At present, quality earth science education in grade school is rare, increasing the importance of post-secondary courses. Observations of post-secondary geoscience indicate students often maintain errant ideas about the earth, even after direct instruction. This qualitative case study documents model-building activities of students as they experienced classroom instruction that braids history, inquiry, and model-based-learning within the context of earth dynamics. Transcripts of students’ conversations, and their written work indicate students primarily employed model accretion to enhance their mental models. Instances of accretion were descriptive, pertaining towhattheir model consisted of, as opposed to how it explained the target phenomenon. Participants also conflated “continent” with “tectonic plate” and had difficulty attributing elastic properties – the mechanism for earthquakes – to rocks or “plates”. We assert that the documented learning difficulties resulted from use of the metaphor “tectonicplate”, reinforced by other everyday experiences and meanings. We suggest students need time with new models or concepts to develop strong descriptions before developing explanations. They need concrete experiences and explicit discussions concerning mapping those experiences to concepts. Lastly, because students often apply common meanings to scientific terms, we should not askifthey understand, but askhowthey understand the concept. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the important discussion provided by the discussion article regarding the utility of a reconceptualization of the mental model literature using the behavior analytic accounts of verbal behavior and cultural analysis. The importance of feedback, goal setting, diagnostic checklists, comprehensive staff training technologies is highlighted. Also, it offers submissions and guidelines of scholarship in the discipline.

From a cognitive perspective, mental models held by individuals are thought to guide interactions with objects or systems, including interpersonal interactions. Frameworks that categorize types of interactions in organizations suggest that they are guided by cultures and mental models that range from the egoistic to the cosmos-centric. From a behavioral perspective, what the cognitive approach callsmental modelsare sets of verbal rules. Therefore, we suggest that behavior analysis could be used to reconceptualize the mental model literature, generating new research questions and more rigorous experimentation. Cognitive constructs such as more expansive mental models may simply be a function of an individual’s or group’s increased attention to interlocking contingencies. Applying behavioral interventions such as acceptance and commitment therapy could be a way to examine the utility of a behavior analytic approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When customers call a service organization to inquire about a problem with their account or order, they often find themselves dependent on representatives to assist them with their needs. One could argue that, from a customer's perspective, personalized service is a reasonable expectation within a service encounter. By tracking customers' orientation to when personalization is relevant for them, this article describes communication methods customers use to solicit individualized attention in an otherwise scripted service encounter. The findings in this article contribute to the body of work that focuses on the accomplishment of personalization within service encounters, and have implications for future research on communication practices in organizational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of network-movements since 2011 has opened the debate around the way in which social media and networked practices make possible innovative forms of collective identity. We briefly review the literature on social movements and ‘collective identity’, and show the tension between different positions stressing either organization or culture, the personal or the collective, aggregative or networking logics. We argue that the 15M (indignados) network-movement in Spain demands conceptual and methodological innovations. Its rapid emergence, endurance, diversity, multifaceted development and adaptive capacity, posit numerous theoretical and methodological challenges. We show how the use of structural and dynamic analysis of interaction networks (in combination with qualitative data) is a valuable tool to track the shape and change of what we term the ‘systemic dimension’ of collective identities in network-movements. In particular, we introduce a novel method for synchrony detection in Facebook activity to identify the distributed, yet integrated, coordinated activity behind collective identities. Applying this analytical strategy to the 15M movement, we show how it displays a specific form of systemic collective identity we call ‘multitudinous identity’, characterized by social transversality and internal heterogeneity, as well as a transient and distributed leadership driven by action initiatives. Our approach attends to the role of distributed interaction and transient leadership at a mesoscale level of organizational dynamics, which may contribute to contemporary discussions of collective identity in network-movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesbian, gay, and queer (LGQ) teachers often deal with the tension between disclosing and concealing their sexual orientations in the college classroom. This article presents the results of a qualitative interview study with 29 self-identified LGQ college teachers about their choices to disclose or conceal their sexual identities. Using Communication Privacy Management (CPM) as a theoretical framework, interview transcripts were thematically analyzed for privacy rule criteria and disclosure/concealment strategies. This study contributes to previous understanding of CPM by magnifying five strategies for disclosing or concealing sexual identity: selection, reciprocity, ambiguity, deflection, and avoidance. These findings are discussed in greater detail, and implications for CPM theory and teacher sexual identity disclosure in the classroom are further explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian government adopted a multicultural policy in 1971, complicating the binary of ‘two founding peoples’ by acknowledging the diversity of its settler populations. This redefinition took place against the backdrop of the Cold War in which Canada was a strategically located junior partner in the Western alliance. This article draws parallels between photographic representations of Canadian diversity and the photographic culture of the Cold War as complementary programmes of nation-building and national defence. The study focuses mainly on the activities of the Still Photography Division of the National Film Board of Canada in its coincident evolution from a government information agency to a proto-museum with a mandate to collect and circulate Canadian contemporary photography. A curious mixture of communitarian ideals, countercultural impulses, and institutional ambitions is displayed across a number of documentary projects. The power of photography as a silent language is put into question by a modest compilation of words and images that situates both global and local uncertainties in a Winnipeg grocery store. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Relatively few qualitative studies have been published on the role of the embodied practices related to aphasic language problems during talk-in-interaction. It has been suggested that one way of adapting to aphasic language is by using different types of embodied practices. The use of embodied practices may reflect an effort to facilitate impaired verbal processing or their use may function as compensatory behavior to deal with troubles arising during conversation or to avoid these troubles arising in the first place. Pointing gestures may refer to the immediate physical environment, such as to a specific object or a specific place, to another participant, or even to speakers themselves. Occasionally, a pointing gesture may refer to more abstract entities, such as distant places or specific moments. Aims: The aim of this article is to explore conversational sequences with persons with aphasia (PWAs) that contain several pointing gestures. It is analysed how PWAs use pointing gestures in conversation when they are faced with complex comprehension problems as well as verbal output problems. Methods & Procedures: The method of conversation analysis is applied in this study. Outcomes & Results: The qualitative analysis in this study supports the assertion that pointing gestures are significant actions in conversation. Pointing is used in various places in talk where PWAs are experiencing difficulty, such as when problems occur in language comprehension as well as in language production, for example, in the absence of a specific word or the grammatical constructions that are needed. The results suggest that pointing gestures are used in a number of ways as an interactional resource. However, the identification of the referent may need extensive interactional work by the participants. Conclusions: These findings suggest that embodied interaction should be explored more extensively in aphasic talk-in-interaction. Conversation with PWAs is a joint and multimodal activity, which also needs to be taken into account in intervention targeted at aphasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older persons receiving services in community settings, rather than Nursing Homes, are at risk of social isolation. Computer mediated communication offers technological resources that recipients of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) might use to reduce their social isolation. The present study involved personal interviews with 40 HCBS clients regarding their interest in communicating with members of their social networks and using computers. At the time of the interview, 30 of the 40 participants did not use computers and reported cost, lack of training, physical limitations, lack of interest and access, and fraud as the reasons for not using computers. After watching a videotape illustrating an easy-to-use computer interface that allows older persons to communicate with families and friends, 90% reported that it would be helpful for people like them. Participants said such a computer would be helpful because it would make communication with friends and family easy, it could accommodate visual and manual disabilities, and would be interesting. Eighty-five percent said they would use a system like the one they were shown if it were available to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which examines the communication for sustainable development, focusing on various clusters of concepts and practices in the field as well as the subdisciplines. Topics covered include globalization, social marketing, and digital storytelling and how each relates to the concept of communication.

The article presents a theory of material poetics, along with a discursive framework for artworks at a crossover between poetry and text-based art. It is inferred that the theory and framework extends to account for the meaning-making potential inherent in the act of communication, including reading, listening, and writing. The scheme of the speech event, introduced by Roman Jakobson, is applied to understand material poetics.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout the person's lifetime. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about one in 88 U.S. children have ASD. It is usually diagnosed during childhood and is characterized by core symptoms that include qualitative impairment in social interaction and delays in the development of language and communication. Because of the cognitive, social, and language impairments in children with ASD, the implementation of strategies to ensure an accurate and successful motor-skill assessment should not be overlooked. Physical educators may need to take additional precautions as to how, who, what, and where a motor-skill assessment takes place. Specifically, motor-skill assessments of children with ASD may be affected by the way the assessment instructions are presented to the children, the individuals conducting the assessments, the tasks included in the assessments, and the environment in which the assessments take place. This article provides some guidelines and strategies for physical educators to conduct reliable assessments to evaluate the motor performance of children with ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Communication scholars have examined the potential pitfalls and rewards associated with the ability to communicate in online spaces. We continue in that line of research by proposing a mediated moderated communication process model focused on what conditions lead people to engage in aggressive online communication behaviors, otherwise known as flaming. Specifically, we argue that online political discussion socializes individuals to see flaming as an acceptable behavior. This increase in perceived acceptability in turn increases intention to flame. Results demonstrate that this increase in intention to flame is greater among those with high levels of verbal aggression. To test our model, we conducted two surveys that asked students and blog users questions about their online media behaviors. Results replicate across both surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When fantasies and desires go unfulfilled, people may become bored with their sexual relationship. To help prevent this potential infidelity provoking issue, the current study examined patterns of communication to introduce new sexual behaviors to established sexual relationships. Study 1 identified and categorized communication message strategies used by participants’ responses to an open-ended question (N= 102). We found that although participants used indirect language most, a significant number of individuals were direct with their initiation strategies. Study 2 examined the associations between relational and sexual factors (intimacy, uncertainty, number of sexual partners, biological sex, and sexual communication) and message directness (N= 213). Survey results show that sex, uncertainty, and intimacy were correlated with level of directness for introducing a new sexual behavior (p< .05). Results are consistent with the relational turbulence model showing that at moderate levels of intimacy and high uncertainty, people use indirect communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is hard to imagine a more challenging arena for communication research than that presented by new media and their impact on our society. We have witnessed the fastest evolution in communication technology in human history and, along with it, the evolution of communication conceptions and theories used to assess its impact. More than a decade has passed since Chaffee and Metzger first published their intriguing article “The End of Mass Communication?” and suggested that the new media will change the notions of mass communication and, as a result, the theories used in communication research. Today, we know more about new media and its effect on communication, society, and communication theories. The present article, therefore, sets out to reassess Chaffee and Metzger's claim by describing the development of several core theories of communication research, namely the agenda-setting theory and the notions of media audiences and the Digital Divide, in light of the new media. Our review shows that the role played by communication technologies in social, cultural, political, and economic processes is as central and influential in the new media era as it was in traditional media environment and that, although theories may change to accommodate the changes of the new media environment, researchers are still dealing with the “old” issues of power and resistance, and structure and ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The current study investigated forms of technology (phone calls, texts, email and Facebook) for maintaining contact with homeless youth over baseline, 1-week, 6-week, and 3-month follow-up interviews. The study combined quantitative tracking of youths’ response patterns and open-ended interviews regarding youths’ preferred methods of communication. Results indicate that maintaining communication with homeless youth requires persistence, including frequent contact attempts over several days. Cell phone contacts (calls or texts) were most successful in communicating with youth, with e-mail and Facebook messaging useful when phones were lost or stolen. Youth who maintained contact were strikingly similar to youth who discontinued contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elwood Murray (1897–1988) was a pioneer in communication education. Beginning in the 1930s, he applied nontraditional methods in the speech classroom to encourage students to internalize and apply what they learned, and to view knowledge holistically. Drawing on the work of Kunkel, Moreno, Lewin, and Korzybski, Murray focused on developing skills in interpersonal and group communication. He facilitated classroom activities that he believed would bring about positive change in students' personalities as well as enhance their relationships and leadership ability. Communication methodologies, he argued, could facilitate learning in all fields and foster interdisciplinary understanding. In spite of much skepticism by his colleagues, Murray introduced innovative classroom practices that advanced our thinking about instructional communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Communication education is concerned with the communicative aspects of teaching and learning in various situations and contexts. Although the historical roots of this area of inquiry date back to the classical study of rhetoric by the Greeks and Romans, this report focuses on the field's emergence as an important area of modern scholarly study. Contemporary inquiry about communication education pedagogy and instructional communication is explored and clarified. The report then paints a picture of the shifting interests in communication education and instructional communication research and theory in the 20th and early 21st centuries. The contributions of that scholarship to the interdisciplinary, national, and international educational landscapes are described, as well as the field's potential to contribute to future questions in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1980s, noted communication scholar Cassandra Book laid out a comprehensive rationale and agenda for communication education research specifically focusing on pedagogical content knowledge for Communication courses in K-12 education. It has been 25 years since Book published her call for those in our discipline to pursue research interests in communication pedagogy. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the progress, or lack thereof, that scholars in our discipline have made in this area and to provide suggestions for advancing a communication pedagogy advocacy and research agenda for the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on past pedagogical and scholarly lines of inquiry, this article advances—in a dialogic form—several questions for future research and practice in areas of communication, teaching, and learning. The dialogic form of this article offers a metamessage, inviting colleagues to consider creative approaches to inquiry and collaboration in the 21st century. The ideas and questions presented in this essay serve to push the field beyond disciplinary silos, advance research and pedagogy about teaching and learning, and offer thought-provoking insight into what scholars and practitioners who explore communication, teaching, and learning can contribute to those inside and outside of our discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]