As important as access to new media technology is how that technology will be used. Secondary school administrators must take seriously the need to provide a viable program in communications education to prepare students for the next century and to avoid the emergence of a deprived social class consisting of those who cannot use computers. (SM)

Institute for the Future of the Book, based in Brooklyn, aims to combine new ways of thinking with new media to forge a new path for expression. The institute, which was founded in 2004, is on its way to releasing the first version of Sophie, an "all-purpose tool" for creating multimedia texts. Like the institute itself, Sophie's mission…

The Mass Communication and Society section of the Proceedings contains the following 17 papers: "Interactivity and the 'Cyber-Fan': Audience Involvement within the Electronic Fan Culture of the Internet" (Vic Costello); "A Reassessment of the Relationship between Public Affairs Media Use and Political Orientations" (Kim A.…

Ethnographic interviews were conducted to determine how criminals assessed their treatment by the media. Twenty-five inmates, all participants in a mass media communications journalism course at Pendleton Reformatory in Pendleton, Indiana, were videotaped while answering the question: How do you regard the treatment given you by the media during…

A study was conducted to examine the relationship between American mass media and the black community. Subjects were two groups of black midwestern college students--one group studying at a predominantly black university and the other at a mostly white university--with similar social and economic backgrounds. It was hypothesized that black…

The Qualitative Studies section of the Proceedings contains the following 10 papers: "An Alternative to Alternative Media'" (James Hamilton); "A Critical Assessment of News Coverage of the Ethical Implications of Genetic Testing" (David A. Craig); "Earth First! and the Boundaries of Postmodern Environmental…

Perfectionist tendencies seem to exist on a continuum, ranging from healthy to dysfunctional behavior. Gifted students, in particular, struggle with perfectionism. This book discusses how to strike a balance between three main areas of life: (1) work and school; (2) play and hobbies; and (3) family and social relationships. Geared towards…

The Media History section of this collection of conference presentations contains the following 21 papers: "Social Class Advocacy Journalism: Prelude to Party Politics, 1892" (David J. Vergobbi); "Pilfering the News: A Quality Comparison of the World and Journal's Spanish-American War Coverage" (Randall S. Sumpter); "The…

The democratic changes that occurred in Croatia within last two decades are oriented towards European values and multi-intercultural perspectives. Let us remember that, according to the census from 1991, Croatia was inhabited with people from 27 nations, with Croats being a majority. During the Homeland war, basically a defensive war against the…

The Public Relations Division of the proceedings contains the following 20 papers: "Communicating for Technical Change: Business-to-Business Communication with Small Manufacturing Firms" (Danielle Pontiff); "Integrating Editorial Presentation and Public Relations Publications: New Frontiers for Convergence and Collaborative…

(Purpose) The purpose of this paper was to reveal how stereotyped representations of disability are manifested in school curriculum through the textbook content and the attitudes of participants of education. Research questions of this study were: How is disability represented in Lithuanian textbooks? What is the real discourse--that of…

Indicates that the link between audience attitudes toward the communicator and the type of message may be strong, especially when "bad news" is presented. (RB)

Science journalism in the United States can be traced back to at least 1690 when a newspaper called "Publick Occurrences" included two paragraphs of medical writing in one issue. In 1752, the "Pennsylvania Gazette" carried an account by Benjamin Franklin of his "electric kite" experiment. Since then, inventions and…

How people treat each other in their daily interactions seems to be profoundly important and even central to the definition of a "civilized" society. This nationwide survey examined what Americans are thinking about courtesy, manners, rudeness, and respect. Data were gathered through a random sample telephone survey of 2,013 adults…

As it is difficult to know how much damage negative publicity can cause or how an organization should react to it, the best measures are seen as preventive. Advocacy or issue advertising, which attempts to tackle controversial subjects and present facts and arguments that will project the sponsor in a positive light, is one such measure which…