Samuel L. Becker

Marxist approaches to media studies: The British experience

Analysis of contemporary mass communication research in Great Britain reveals a Marxist paradigm growing in influence over the past two decades. Developing largely out of literary criticism, this line of British research has bifurcated, with one line moving toward cultural analysis and the other toward a more traditional social‐scientific model with particular emphasis on class and economic structures as independent variables. This paper provides an introduction to the body of cultural research and theory, and indirectly, to the growing corpus of Marxist communication study throughout the world.

The effect of instructional methods upon achievement and attitudes in communication skills

The method used to communicate the “content” of a course in communication skills has little effect upon the acquirement of skills or on the knowledge which the student gains of the principles of speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Hearing the regular classroom instructor in the face‐to‐face situation, viewing television recordings made by “experts” in each subject area, and reading comparable material in textbooks and journals seem to be equally effective as methods for handling this aspect of the course. Instructor differences are, in general, independent of the teaching methods compared.

Directions of Small Group Research for the 1980's.

Communication research on small groups has focused primarily on isolating variable that affect the process. Future scholarship should have a more applied character. Investigators should be attempting to discover if it is possible to improve the performance of established groups.

Communication skills as predictors of supervisor and student ratings of teachers

An exploratory study of 123 vocational education teachers suggests the kinds of communication skills that are predictors of two teaching effectiveness criteria: supervisor and student ratings of teachers. The best predictors of supervisor evaluations were a teachers delivery skills and the amount of time he spent in direct contact with his students. The variables that best predicted student evaluations had to do with how dynamic the teacher was and how well he liked his students.

Communication and Teaching Effectiveness in Industrial Education

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how communication relates to teaching effectiveness in an Industrial Education setting. Teaching effectiveness was defined in terms of two criteria: supervisor evaluations of teachers and student evaluations of teachers. Results from the study underscored the importance of communication skills in the teaching/learning process. The most important measures were: teacher dynamism, teacher delivery, time spent with the students, positive reinforcement of the students, and positive attitude toward the students. These measures differentiated “good” from “poor” teaching.

Social support and smoking behavior: The impact of network composition and type of support on cessation and relapse

The extant literature has examined the structural elements of social support, or the supportive functions of interpersonal relationships of smokers. Seldom have they been studied in conjunction. A questionnaire assessed the frequency with which general and smoking specific support was given to people who went on to become successful abstainers or relapsed during the last attempt to quit, as well as the smoking status of the persons who made up the smokers network. Results revealed some differential relationships between network composition and type of social support given, depending on the eventual smoking status of the individual.

The Context of Employed Women's Media Use

This study extends the concept of media uses and gratifications by examining media uses in the context of employed womens varied situations, thus addressing one of the criticisms of this widely used theory. The sample for the study consisted of 378 part and full-time employed women who kept week-long diaries emphasizing their media use and accompanying activities. In addition to quantitative analyses of this samples activities, the diaries of 37 full-time employed mothers (with dependent children) were qualitatively examined. Both analyses indicated that employed women usually do other things while using mass media, most frequently related to home and family care. This is especially true for full-time employed mothers. The analyses also indicated much less, and less ritualized mass media use in employed womens lives than in the general population. In addition, James Lulls structural and relational uses of electronic media were evident in the diaries of full-time employed mothers. These women appear to...

Directions for inter‐cultural communication research

Despite a large number of conferences, studies, and publications about inter‐cultural communication, there are many important problems which have thus far, apparently, escaped attention. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate discussion which may help to uncover some of these problems and, perhaps, suggest strategies for studying them.

Celebrating Spirit, Commitment, and Excellence in Communication.

This Keynote Address was delivered to the sixty‐second annual convention of The Southern States Communication Association. Professor Becker outlines why he considers communication to be the central academic discipline. He argues that communication is a site where other disciplines intersect. A challenge is issued to take stock of and pride in the discipline of communication.

Viewpoint: McLuhan as Rorschach

The following essay is the first in what we hope becomes a fairly regular series. Under the common title of “Viewpoint,” these short pieces will always appear last in any given issue, and will be devoted more to commentary rather than research. Typically, they will present a point of view on a matter of research or topical importance in mass communication. Typical strictures on articles will be waived for submissions to this section, and decisions will be made primarily on the basis of originality of thought and approach. Submitted material must be short—the average no more than six to eight double spaced pages of typescript. Dr. Becker, national president of Speech Communication Association for 1974–75, is a long time member of the Speech faculty at the University of Iowa.