RSS 1.0Communication
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The Department of Communication is one of the largest academic departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, with nearly 400 undergraduate majors and a moderately-sized master's degree program. The department offers programs of study in Public Relations, Journalism, Electronic Media, and Human Communication. The MA program offers advanced studies in these areas. With seven tenured or tenure-track faculty members and nearly twice as many lecturers and adjunct faculty, the department boasts a broad range of training, talent, and teaching experience.
Recent Submissions
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Prescription for Doctors: An Interpretive Analysis of Messages Portrayed By Websites Targeting Potential Medical StudentsThis study examined communication about medical professional career decisions as depicted by 10 popular websites. Qualitative research methods, phenomenology and hermeneutics, were used to investigate these messages. Findings revealed a differencebetween medical community authors and layperson authors. Authors associated with the medical field shared overall positive messaging while authors not associated with the medical field leaned toward a negative presentation of information. The divide was most prominent when the role of advising was introduced. Topics discussed in the research included making the choice to enter the medical profession, level of intelligence of medical students, personality traits, financial incentive, continued education,and life after graduation. The results of this study provide implications for future research for examining a possible connection between messages portrayed by popular search results and America‟s physician shortage. A detailed discussion of findings and suggestions for further research is presented. The author‟s own experience is incorporated into the analysis.
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The Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Student Perceptions of Instructional Communication BehaviorsIn spite of desegregation and efforts to provide equitable education for all students, minorities and students living in poverty continue to underperform their peers. Education theorists have attributed this achievement gap to a cultural mismatch between students and their teachers and schools. At the same time, instructional communication research has found that cultural differences may influence student perceptions of teacher communication behaviors and that these behaviors have an effect on learning outcomes. Interestingly, while race has received extensive study in the instructional communication literature, little research has examined the role of socioeconomic status on students’ perceptions of instructor communication behaviors. The current study attempted to bridge this gap by examining the extent to which a student’s family income and first generation college student status affect perceptions of teacher nonverbal immediacy, clarity, and credibility. Data were derived from surveys completed by students enrolled in an entry level communication course and analyzed using multivariate methods. No significant effects were observed; however, a review of effect sizes suggests that family income may influence students’ perceptions of their instructor’s communication behaviors. While nonsignificant, these findings contribute to existing instructional communication research and provide some empirical evidence for the conceptual framework on which the study was based. Further research is recommended to establish a greater understanding of these phenomena.
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The relationship between receiver apprehension and listening styles in students at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between receiver apprehension(RA),an anxiety-related construct associated with inadequate information processing capability,and listening style in the context of the college classroom.Two of the four hypotheses tested indicate no relationship exists between the varibales.One hypothesis indicated a negative relationship between the varibales,and one hypothesis could not be tested due to insufficient data.Additional research needs to be conducted to determine if relationships do exist between these varibales.
