Today, listening to radio is typically a secondary activity since people tend to tune in while doing something else. This is a far cry from the Golden Age of Radio when people paid close attention to what was broadcast and relied on their imaginations to visualize scenes and characters. Ironically, it appears that technology is enabling listeners to experience radio much like they did over 60 years ago. Through podcasting, individuals can control not only what they hear, but also when and where it is heard, which enhances opportunities for attentive listening and mental imagery. By relying on the uses and gratifications approach, this study reveals that people attentively listen to and visualize content from podcast programs which contain aural characteristics similar to shows aired during the Golden Age of Radio. The research findings are based on responses gathered from online surveys completed by individuals who listen to the podcast version of the popular public radio program, <em>This American Life</em>.

This study explores and analyzes marketing strategies of renewable energy by selected companies in Bangladesh and the United States. The study identified, compared and contrasted different marketing strategies by the participating companies. The study was also taken to a normative level where the author recommended improvements to renewable energy marketing. Company officials representing six different companies - three from Bangladesh and three from the United States - were interviewed for the study. The author assigned pseudonyms for the companies and did not reveal the identity of the interviewees in order to protect confidential proprietary information provided by the companies. While there are differences found in marketing strategies of the companies from the two very different countries, there are also commonalities, especially when the companies are serving similar target groups. High initial costs and lack of awareness of renewables are the two major challenges identified in the study. All the participating companies reaffirmed that better education and better government incentives on renewables along with appropriate marketing strategies by the companies can take renewable energy a long way. Renewable energy technology could be a vital force in alleviating the ongoing global energy crisis.

This study examines music coverage in 1960s Time and Newsweek magazines, to determine whether pop/rock coverage surpassed classical coverage during the decade, and if so, when the shift in coverage occurred and whether it was sustained. No prior studies on music coverage in 1960s Time and/or Newsweek magazines have been found. A content analysis was conducted using a stratified sample of one issue per month for each magazine from January 1960 to December 1969. The column inches were measured for each piece of music coverage, and the number of photos in each music-oriented article was counted. The results showed that there were no statistically significant changes in the amount of rock/pop coverage compared to classical coverage, though there was an increase in the number of rock and pop stories near the end of the decade. Classical coverage remained the dominant music coverage through the 1960s.

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which geographic distance and RCCUs predict relational turbulence. Specifically, following Knobloch's (2007) relational turbulence model, I examined the extent to which relational uncertainty and partner interference mediate these associations. The sample consisted of 169 participants involved in local (n = 79) and long-distance (n= 90) romantic relationships. Participants included undergraduate students completing the survey for course or extra credit and users of online romantic relationship forums. Overall, the results suggest that distance and RCCUs do predict relational turbulence, including indirect effects through relational uncertainty (for RCCUs) and partner interference (for geographic distance). The present study extends RCCUs to the experience of relational turbulence and, more practically, may help partners and practitioners mitigate turbulence in romantic relationships.

This study explored young adult siblings' use of confirming behaviors as a moderator of sibling rivalry and relational outcomes in the sibling relationship (i.e., closeness and satisfaction). Participants included 329 young adults who completed online questionnaires concerning their perceptions of their sibling relationship, including their parents' treatment of them and their siblings, sibling confirmation, sibling challenge, and closeness and satisfaction with the sibling relationship. Bivariate correlations supported the hypothesized negative associations among perceptions of parents' differential treatment (i.e., an indicator of rivalry) and sibling confirmation, challenge, closeness, and satisfaction, as well as the positive associations among sibling confirmation, challenge, closeness, and satisfaction. Multivariate tests were conducted separately for participants' perceptions of differential parental treatment that favored them and/or their siblings, and the results of these tests provided partial support for the hypothesis that sibling confirmation would mitigate the negative effects of a sibling rivalry on sibling closeness and satisfaction. Specifically, moderate to high levels of sibling confirmation from the target sibling helped mitigate the negative effect of parents' differential treatment of the target sibling on the participant's closeness and satisfaction with the target sibling. Among the more important implications of this study is the finding that confirmation moderates the negative effect of rivalry on the sibling relationship, but only when young adults report that their sibling perceives that s/he is the recipient of their parents' differential treatment.

This study explored predictors of relational maintenance behaviors within the context of friendships. Several theoretical frameworks were compared--equity theory, self-expansion theory, the relational turbulence model, and the interaction enjoyment approach. Participants included 371 young adults who completed online questionnaires concerning their perceptions of friendship maintenance behaviors with a close or casual friend. Results supported self-expansion theory, the relational turbulence model, and the interaction enjoyment approach as significant theoretical explanations of friendship maintenance behaviors. The central goal of this study was accomplished in that relational uncertainty and interaction enjoyment emerged as complementary, and even stronger, predictors of relational maintenance behaviors than the other theoretical explanations. Overall, interaction enjoyment was the strongest predictor of friendship maintenance. Conversely, the traditional equity approach received minimal support. The theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of these findings were discussed.

Organizational dissent is associated with a myriad of positive organizational outcomes including job satisfaction (Lutgen-Sandvik, Riforgiate, & Fletcher, 2011) and overall organizational success (Hegstrom 1990; Redding, 1985). This study investigates the relational variable of teamwork schema similarity and the organizational level variables of group atmosphere as factors which affect the expression and appropriateness of organizational dissent. Results indicate that upward dissent is considered more conversationally appropriate than lateral dissent, and that the five dimensions of group atmosphere (trust, respect, liking, open discussion, and cohesiveness) are each positively related to the expression of upward dissent.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between family characteristics and communication apprehension. McCroskey (2009) has argued that communication apprehension is the brain's response to a threat to self. Hsu (1998) asserts that the family of origin is one of the primary factors influencing an individual's proclivity to develop communication apprehension. That is, one's family of origin has the power to shape the development of positive and negative affects including anxiety about communication. Consequently, this study examined the influence of familial factors, such as birth order and family communication patterns, on communication apprehension. Results suggest that there is a relationship between family communication patterns, birth order, and communication apprehension. Future research should continue to examine birth-order from both a traditional and modified perspective and its relationship to an individual's tendency to develop trait anxiety and how a family's communication pattern reinforces the development or prevention of such.

The future participation of political volunteers is examined using the theoretical lenses of social identity theory (Tajfel, 1982) and stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984). These theories have been applied to the volunteers of non-profits (Dwiggens-Beeler, Spitzberg, & Roesch, 2012; Scott, 2007) and corporations (Donaldson & Preston, 1995), but they have not been used to examine political volunteers. The results of the non-profit research suggest that the identification, commitment, and organizational role of political volunteers should impact a volunteer's willingness to volunteer again. As these variables can be communication-based, the communication satisfaction of the volunteers is also hypothesized as a factor in future participation. Results indicate that these four variables all predict the likelihood of political volunteers to continue their work with a campaign. This result is discussed in terms of theoretical and practical implications, and future directions are suggested.

Using family communication patterns theory (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2002a), this study tested the degree to which joint family storytelling mediates the relationship between family communication patterns (i.e., conversation and conformity orientations) and family strength. Participants consisted of 267 young adults from first-marriage families. The results indicated that conversation orientation is positively associated with both joint family storytelling behaviors (i.e., engagement, polite turn-taking, perspective-taking and coherence) and family strength, while conformity orientation is negatively associated with various joint family storytelling behaviors and family strength. The results also indicated that joint family storytelling partially mediates the relationship between family conversation and conformity orientations and family strength. Specifically, the level of engagement and politeness of turn-taking mediate the relationship between conversation orientation and family strengths, while perspective-taking and the politeness of turn-taking mediate the relationship between conformity orientation and family strength.