This paper examines summer seasonal organizations to examine how they socialize employees in an abbreviated amount of time.

Upon experiencing conflict in a relationship, individuals have a variety of response options. While one can seek revenge or avoid that person, another option forgiveness can repair the relationship and foster health for both relationship partners. In coming together to confront the conflict and move beyond it, relational partners negotiate forgiveness in interpersonal interactions to accommodate face needs. In doing so, individuals must communicate by seeking forgiveness from and granting it to their relational partners. While much research has pointed to the health benefits associated with forgiving, little has explored the role communicating specifically plays in later received health. In an effort to expand upon previous research, this study was conducted to confirm the presence of forgiveness communication strategies found in romantic relationships by Kelley and Waldron (2005) and Waldron and Kelley (2005) in forgiveness interactions experienced between parents and children. One-hundred-forty-eight young adult-children completed self-report surveys measuring forgiveness communication behaviors used in forgiveness interactions with their parents. All of the strategies evident in previous research were present in the current study. However, the specific way of communicating forgiveness had little to no association with later health. Conclusions are drawn based on an evaluation of the forgiveness communication strategies and facework.

<p><P>The Internet has undergone a tremendous evolution during the past five years. Since 1995, consumer-catalog websites have not only come into being, but have become important business and consumer tools. Despite the upsurge and importance of these websites, it is difficult to find freely available tools that help website developers make important decisions regarding the content of these websites.</P><P> In this pilot study, I analyze a small sample of websites to compare the features of high-ranked and low-ranked consumer-catalog websites. The purpose of this research is twofold: to determine whether it is possible to pinpoint which features are exhibited by high-ranked and low-ranked websites and to present a tool that could simplify making decisions about certain content-related features.</P><P> I found that there are, indeed, differences between the content-related features of high-ranked and low-ranked websites. Some features are found more often in high-ranked websites than in low-ranked websites: longer, reader-based product descriptions; humor; certain types of company-related information (investor, staff, and employment information); consistent page design; consistent navigational patterns; sound; specific types of peripheral documents; alternate-language formats; sales incentives (discounts, bestsellers, advertising space, affiliate programs, and gift certificates). Following is a list of the features that are found more often in low-ranked websites than in high-ranked websites: product descriptions that are brief and jargon-laden; inconsistent page design; splash screens; inconsistent navigational patterns; fewer instances of peripheral documents and alternate-language formats than high-ranked sites; and fewer instances of sales incentives than high-ranked sites (discounts, bestsellers, and free product giveaways). I also found that it likely would be possible to develop the sort of tool described above. Implications for further research are also discussed.</P><P>

<p>Electronic publication brings a wide range of questions regarding how our lives will change. An area of great change has been electronic scholarly publication. One question this change has brought about is how we can prepare undergraduates as professionals prepared to meet this challenge. To this end, in 1996 I and the Center for Communication in Science, Technology, and Research began a two-year experimental online journal to publish "excellent" undergraduate research: the NCSU Student Researcher. Our goals were to introduce undergraduates from across the NC State campus to the challenges of electronic publication, to reward and enhance their class research by publishing their class papers, to highlight excellent NC State student writing across campus and beyond, and to explore electronic participation and presentation. The "peer" review procedure involved two faculty nominating the paper as "excellent" undergraduate research. We received a great deal of enthusiastic interest and input from many students and faculty, yet ultimately the Researcher received only two submissions. This thesis, the final report for the project, explores factors affecting student and faculty participation. Three different approaches to audience analysis were practiced in designing the journal (Schriver, Dynamics in Document Design, 1997): intuition-driven, classification-driven, and feedback-driven. The design process provides excellent examples of strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, and the superior approach of feedback-driven audience analysis, which was applied via systems analysis (Senge, The Fifth Discipline, 1990). The use of Senge's systems analysis as a form of audience analysis was a crucial contribution to understanding the journal's outcome. This thesis also discusses the dynamic model of scholarly communication uncovered by systems analysis. Rather than a linear process beginning with author and ending with reader, as found in the scholarly literature on scholarly publication, journals and other document series exist within an "interactive communication environment," not as single documents with a relatively distinct beginning and end, but a planned, dynamic series of documents that relies on its audience for input in order to survive. Feedback-driven audience analysis as practiced by systems analysis is particularly appropriate for analyzing audiences for such environments, which include periodicals, listservs, and chatrooms, as well as planned revisions based on audience feedback. Gathering feedback from the audience throughout the course of designing such an environment is critical if the environment depends on that audience for its survival. Systems analysis/feedback-driven audience analysis ultimately pinpointed the source of the Student Researcher's failure. The model of scholarly publication applied in the early design stages, derived by intuition- and classification-driven audience analysis, focused on authors (students) as the source of journal submissions. This conflicted with the mindset of faculty and students, because many conceived of no "disciplinary space" in which undergraduate publication is appropriate ("undergraduates are not authors"). Also, Writing Across the Curriculum initiative at NC State had caused most faculty to rethink what they considered "excellent" undergraduate writing, so publicly nominating a paper as "excellent" at that time was problematic. Systems analysis identified faculty, rather than the students, as the motivators in the publication process and thus the appropriate target for marketing and audience feedback. Because I did not seek systematic faculty and student input throughout the journal design process, I was unaware of the effect of the WAC initiative, and unaware that most faculty did not believe undergraduate publication per se was worth their effort. Because I focused on the students and not the faculty in marketing the journal, I had not invited broad faculty input in the design of the journal, a design that may have departed from the standard scholarly model in order for them to perceive it as appropriate for their students.<P>

This study investigated the associations among relational uncertainty, communication efficacy, and the frequency and comfort of discussing religious topics in romantic relationships. Participants included 204 young adults currently involved in a romantic relationship. Preliminary analyses (i.e., bivariate correlations) revealed a positive association between time dating and the frequency with which respondents discussed religious topics, as well as a positive association between the frequency of discussing religious topics and the perception that one shares a similar religious affiliation with one's romantic partner. Primary analyses revealed a negative relationship between relational uncertainty and the frequency and comfort with which partners discuss religious beliefs. Though anxiety from uncertainty discrepancies yielded no meaningful association with the discussion of religious beliefs, communication efficacy was positively associated with comfort levels and frequency of such conversations in dating relationships. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that relational uncertainty and communication efficacy combine to predict the comfort level and frequency with which romantic partners discuss religious topics. Furthermore, a suppressor effect emerged for coping efficacy on the frequency with which respondents discussed religious topics, such that those individuals who lacked confidence in their abilities to cope with their romantic partner's religious beliefs, but perceived that their partners would be honest about their beliefs when asked, were more likely to engage in discussions about said beliefs. The results also provided some support for the effects of relational turbulence on the comfort level associated with discussing religious topics. Specifically, the associations between relational uncertainty, communication efficacy, and the comfort associated with discussing religious topics were more robust at moderate levels of intimacy rather than at low or high levels of intimacy. Collectively, the results provide evidence that relational uncertainty and communication efficacy are meaningful factors that potentially influence the frequency and comfort level associated with discussing religious topics in romantic relationships.

This study explored young adult children's perceptions of supportive and antagonistic coparental communication as a factor that mediates the impact of witnessing interparental conflict (i.e., demand-withdraw patterns and symbolic aggression) on young adult children's mental well-being. Participants included 493 young adults who completed questionnaires concerning their parents' conflict, coparental communication, and personal reports of global self-esteem, perceived stress, and mental health symptoms. Bivariate correlations largely supported the hypothesized associations between witnessing interparental conflict, perceptions of supportive and antagonistic coparental communication, and young adults' mental well-being. Given significant differences in the constructs of interest between children from first-marriage and divorced families, however, multivariate tests were conducted separately for each group and the results were interpreted in light of the differences between family types. For young adults in first-marriage families, the results revealed that coparental communication mediates the adverse effects of witnessing parents' demand-withdraw patterns and symbolic aggression on their global self-esteem and perceived stress. Less support emerged for mental health symptoms, though supportive coparental communication mediated the negative effect of witnessing fathers' aggression on young adults' mental health. For young adults in divorced families, the results provided much less evidence to suggest that coparental communication mediates the effects of witnessing interparental conflict on young adults' mental well-being. One exception did emerge for global self-esteem, as antagonistic coparental communication mediated the negative effects of witnessing demand-withdraw patterns and fathers' symbolic aggression. Among the more important implications of this study is the finding that perceptions of supportive and antagonistic coparental communication may operate as risk mechanisms in first-marriage families, heightening the negative effects of witnessing interparental conflict on young adult children's mental well-being.

About a fifth of local TV news producers in Texas at ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC stations are experiencing burnout or are at risk for burning out. Additionally, almost half of the producers surveyed scored high on exhaustion and almost two-thirds of participating producers scored high on cynicism, both burnout factors indicating potential future problems for producers. This study found producers who report feelings of burnout also reported unsatisfactory resources to effectively do their jobs, heavy workloads, and a desire to leave their jobs and/or their profession, among other factors. Women producers were found to be feeling more burned out than their male counterparts. Means of preventing burnout and coping with the experience of burnout are also addressed, including the value of the Maslach Burnout Inventory as an effective administrative tool in detecting potential problems.

Emotional contagion theory predicts the automatic and unconscious transferring of emotions from one person to another by way of mimicry and afferent feedback (Hatfield, 1992). Research has shown that communicators who are attuned to anothers emotional cues may be more likely to stimulate emotional contagion. Because mediation requires participants to identify and attend to disputants emotions, mediators may be susceptible to this phenomenon. Results of a quasi-experimental study support the hypothesis that emotional contagion affects mediators during mediation.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy became the first Irish Roman Catholic to be elected president of the United States of America, defeating Vice President Richard M. Nixon in what was up to that time the closest presidential race in American history. The debate over Kennedys religion was a major factor during the campaign, and included both anti-Kennedy/anti-Catholic statements by major religious figures and Kennedy vigorously defending his belief in the separation of church and state. This study addresses how two Irish newspapers, the Irish Independent and The Irish Times, covered the Kennedy/Nixon campaign, with particular attention being paid to coverage of both the religious debate and Kennedys cultural ties with Ireland. The implications of this qualitative analysis can contribute to the bodies of knowledge of the religious debate in the 1960 election, cultural affinity displayed by newspapers with historically different readerships and editorial stances, and the history of Irish journalism.

This study delves into Americas fastest growing sport, NASCAR and looks beyond the entity itself to one of its most illustrious facilities, Texas Motor Speedway. The speedway relies heavily on its sponsorships to help subsidize the cost of hosting a NASCAR race weekend which is considered to be the equivalent of hosting a NFL Super Bowl. In order to attract the thousands of ticket buyers to each event, Texas Motor Speedway relies on advertising to promote the events and its sponsors. Each event reflects the exclusive sponsor of the NASCAR event and thus is utilized in print advertising. This research explores the ramifications of incorporating multiple sponsors into one print advertisement and evaluates the impact on recall and recognition of the ads message, congruence/incongruence of the sponsors and Texas Motor Speedway as well as whether this leads to a behavioral intent to purchase tickets.