This essay examines the function of synecdoche as a master trope in the environmental discourse surrounding the salmon crisis in the Pacific Northwest. It argues that synecdoche as a rhetorical construct has shaped and expressed public, political and scientific views of salmon in at least four critical ways. First, salmon has been rendered synecdochic as a Northwest icon by both Native Americans who first occupied the region and by European Americans who followed. Second, the story of the salmon as told by Northwesterners, which stems from its life cycle and reinforces its iconic status, is conveyed in synecdochic form. Third, the complexity of problems facing salmon and the prospects for recovery are described in terms of an intricate web of part for whole and whole for part relationships. And fourth, the human folly described in the history of the salmon crisis extends the synecdochic patterns in the discourse to conclude with an ironic lament about salmon and life as a whole. As such, synecdoche combin...
This essay explores rhetorical contextualization, or how rhetoric both reveals and conceals subjects in the socio‐cultural terrain. Utilizing Burke's notion of representative anecdotes, equipment for living, and frames of acceptance/rejection/transition, the authors explore how these three concepts intersect within the realm of attitude through a textual analysis of the television show Talk Soup and interviews with young adult fans of the program. As young adults are faced with the prospect of “downward mobility” and uncertain futures, this essay asserts that they find equipment for living in mediated texts that provide a perspective of “looking down” while not necessarily “moving up” to achieve “the American Dream.”
An experiment investigated the influence of vocal intonation on children's processing of explicit and implicit text concepts. Children at two age levels (5 & 7 year olds) listened to narratives in which the story characters’ affective tones were either consistent or inconsistent with story content. The children's comprehension of the narratives was assessed through a cued recall, recognition, and free recall task. Overall, the discrepant cues tended to affect children's processing of implicit but not explicit text material. Several age level differences were also observed. The cues influenced the older but not the younger children's speed of processing implicit information. On the other hand, vocal intonation affected the younger but not the older children's appraisals of story outcome. It was speculated that young children assign more weight to vocal information in making assessments of story outcome than do older children.
Communication network research has been criticized for being based on an atheoretical method with little explanatory power. Research on organizational identification (OI), although theoretically rich, has been criticized for the paucity of research which examines the relationship between identification and communication. This research used OI as a theoretical framework from which to study communication networks. Incoming graduate students from three communication departments specified the content and patterns of their communication with members of their respective departments and indicated their organizational identification at three points in time during their first academic year. Results indicate that (a) multiplex communication relationships are positively associated with OI; (b) these respondents specified an array of ten content topics rather than the three traditionally used by network researchers; and (c) OI is related to specific conversational content. Academic talk during initial interactions was negatively related to midyear OI. Mid‐year social interaction and OI were positively related. Midyear interaction about departmental issues was negatively related to overall change in OI. Near the end of the first academic year, phatic and social topics were positively related to OI while concrete interaction was negatively associated with change in OI.
Studies regarding message sidedness and persuasion indicate that sidedness effects are moderated by the type of two‐sided message employed, but do not indicate why various messages differ in persuasiveness. This research tests two causal models of cognitive processing. Model 1 posits that messages produce general evaluations that prompt the generation of cognitions. Model 2 suggests messages prompt cognitions upon which subsequent evaluations are based. The data are consistent with Model 2 and inconsistent with Model 1 and begin to demonstrate how one‐sided, nonrefutational two‐sided, and refutational two‐sided messages are processed.
Cognitive and communicative activities directed toward understanding disputes in ongoing relationships are argued to influence perceptions of problem seriousness and partner responsibility. In the present study, results associated with major conflicts suggest mulling about disputes increases perceived severity of conflicts and the likelihood partners are blamed. Frequent communication activity and integrative interactions attenuated the negative effects of prolonged thought, whereas discussions characterized by distributiveness magnified the repercussions associated with conflict related thought. These relationships were not apparent in minor problem contexts, and avoidant behaviors during conflict interactions had no effect on the impact of mulling. Discussion of implications focuses on the impact of sense‐making activities on defining conflicts, conflict resolution strategies, and directions for future research.
This study treats collective bargaining as a social construction of reality. Adopting the framework of symbolic convergence theory, this investigation examines the rituals and fantasy themes of bargainers and team members collected through observations of teachers’ negotiations and interviews with participants. Fantasy theme analysis reveals that both school districts develop symbolic convergence on common enemies and past negotiations. This convergence instills similar values and motives for the negotiation process. However, the two districts and the labor‐management teams differ in the meanings that they hold for the bargaining rite.
This investigation assessed two competing hypotheses regarding the relationship between self‐disclosure in marriage and the marital satisfaction of husbands and wives: an interaction‐effect hypothesis, which suggests the relationship between self‐disclosure and marital satisfaction for either spouse is contingent on the level of self‐disclosure of the other, and a direct‐effect hypothesis, which suggests that the marital satisfaction of each spouse varies directly as a function of the level of self‐disclosure of both self and other in marriage. The simpler, lower‐order, direct‐effect hypothesis is concluded to account adequately for the data.
(1991). A postmodern look at traditional communication postulates. Western Journal of Speech Communication: Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 354-379.
Time is an important source of argument in the rhetoric of political campaigns. Appeals identified by Perelman and Olbrechts‐Tyteca (1969) as loci communes can provide the basis for a candidate's conception of temporality. By inviting audiences to consider time at various levels of awareness or consciousness, a candidate's temporal vision can generate a sense of “public time” (Goodnight, 1987) or urgency concerning the impending electoral decision. During the 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon articulated distinct temporal visions, based respectively on loci of quality and quantity, in their debate about the status and future of America's space program. This essay analyzes Nixon's and Kennedy's temporal visions as articulated in the space debate in order to illuminate the rhetorical dynamics of the 1960 presidential campaign and to enhance understanding of how time functions in political campaign discourse.
A model of supervisors' communicative behavior from the subordinate's perspective is explored in this study. The model is derived from previous research that suggests freedom of expression and self‐concept affirmation are important needs which employees want satisfied in the organizational situation. The communication traits of supervisors posited as instrumental to these needs being satisfied are argumentativeness and affirming style (composed of relaxed, friendly, attentive, and low verbal aggressiveness). A study of 216 subordinates is reported that tests a hypothesis about which perceived supervisory styles are associated with the least and the most subordinates' satisfaction and organizational commitment. The results generally supported the model. Verbal aggressiveness was found to be especially potent in explaining variability in satisfaction with superiors. An emphasis on verbal aggressiveness in future organizational communication research is suggested, along with continued attention to the role of dialectic in the communication between superiors and subordinates.
Approaching Places in the Heart as a text “open” to divergent ideological interpretations, this essay argues that the director's skillful manipulation of the romantic formula enhances the film's appeal to a broad audience. In particular, the essay suggests that the film offers complex messages about feminism and the farm crisis. These ambivalent messages sustain, rather than resolve, the tensions in viewers between the moralistic and materialistic dimension of the American Dream.
A key element in the government's attempt to get Americans to accept nuclear deterrence strategy in the 1950s and 1960s was the campaign for civil defense, especially the building of private fallout shelters, as a form of civic duty. A critical approach to the campaign “in the pragmatic attitude” reveals that the campaign really was the site of several competing texts, including mass‐media narratives and pacifist social movement discourse resisting civil defense. The public debate over civil defense programs reveals cultural contradictions between some of these texts and the practices of everyday life, especially the tension between competitive individualism and cooperative community.
Organizational commitment and identification are two constructs that communication researchers currently utilize to study the employee‐organization relationship. A review of the literature reveals that the terms commitment and identification have distinct meanings, although they have been developed as virtual synonyms. This is especially true when comparing attitudinal commitment with identification as product. The review indicates that contemporary conceptualizations and operationalizations of attitudinal commitment (e.g., Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982) and identification as product (e.g., Cheney, 1983a) reference the same cluster of attitudes. Additionally, an empirical study reported herein found that commitment and identification correlated consistently and similarly with relevant attitudinal, tenure, and demographic variables. This investigation concludes that communication scholars are advised to refer to identification as a process and commitment as an outcome of that process.
This study examines argument sequences that couples use in conversations about relational problems and investigates the associations between argument sequences and control mutuality. Two additional relational variables, satisfaction and relationship length, are also examined. Lag sequential analyses and correlation analyses reveal that four sets of sequences were enacted by participants: developing, rudimentary, converging, and diverging. Control mutuality correlated positively with developing and converging sequences, but was associated negatively with diverging sequences. Relational satisfaction also correlated negatively with diverging sequences, while relationship length was associated positively with converging sequences.
Persons with physical disabilities were studied to determine how they communicate when they perceive ablebodied persons are expecting or demanding disclosure about their disability in new relationships. An interpretive analysis was performed on 350 pages of transcripted data from interviews with disabled adults. The results showed that disabled persons were able to describe the communication of ablebodied others and their attributions when disclosure was demanded or expected. This study revealed communication strategies disabled persons use to manage disclosure. These strategies were discussed as regulating privacy boundaries, whereby disabled persons seek to be acknowledged as "persons first" by controlling dissemination of private information.
This essay explains the vice‐presidential role and its rhetorical characteristics through an examination of public talk by and about those who run for the vice‐presidential office. More specifically, the essay argues that the vice presidency is a traditional female role in what Burke would describe as comedic drama, the symbolic form where protagonists are controlled by the situations around them, and that nominees must undergo a sublimation process during their candidacy. As part of this analysis, the essay also analyzes an apparent aberration in public talk about vice‐presidential candidates, the campaign of Geraldine Ferraro, and how the rhetorical “rules” of the vice presidency impacted upon her candidacy. Finally, the essay notes how the campaign of Dan Quayle paralleled, in many ways, that of Ferraro.
A meta‐analysis comparing the persuasiveness of one‐sided and two‐sided messages was conducted. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model it was hypothesized that audience favorability would moderate the effectiveness of the messages. However, the Discounting Hypothesis predicted increased persuasiveness for the two‐sided message. The analysis indicated the existence of two types of operationalizations for two‐sided messages (refutational and nonrefutational). The results demonstrate that a two‐sided message with refutation is more persuasive than a one‐sided message while a one‐sided message is more persuasive than a two‐sided message without refutation. The findings are inconsistent with the ELM but consistent with the Discounting Hypothesis.
This study deals with whether a perceiver will distinguish between nonverbal messages sent with specific intent versus those representing a more spontaneous “gestalt” and the extent to which these diverse behavioral modes correlate with the degree of immediacy reflected in the nonverbal behaviors. Despite evidence that largely purposeful nonverbal behaviors are physically different from those encoded with less clear intent, participants (N = 62) saw most nonimmediate behaviors as intentionally sent while immediate behaviors were seen as more unintentional. Behaviors indicative of immediacy were also viewed as directed toward the perceiver and resulted in more favorable evaluations of the message sender. Individuals behaving with greater immediacy were interpreted as being more competent and evaluated more favorably than those using low immediacy. Type of intent had little impact on social perceptions.
