Includes index.

Contents: Language and politics: Communication, language, and the crisis of hegemony in South Africa -- Metaphor and the media -- Cultural stories in the Rhetoric of U.S. involvement in Vietnam -- Defining a foreign social movement: an analysis of Newsweek's coverage of the solidarity trade union movement in Poland -- The Third crisis in journalism: a political linguistics perspective -- Discourse direction and power: diverging strategies during a welfare interview -- Sociolinguistics: Japanese oral narrative as an interactional event -- Speaking as reflected in Turkish proverbs -- Performance as cultural reflection: Popular art as rhetorical artifact: the case of reggae music -- The Latent meaning of a dance: the cebuano sinulog as a model of social interaction -- Br'er Anansi: individual and cultural expressions in Antigua, West Indies -- Sales, promotion and organization: Organizational cultures: an examination of the role of communication -- Loaded images: an analysis of the music-video industry -- Cultural norms and foretalk in direct sales interactions -- Convenience stores and the consumer: interaction patterns and influence -- Are there Bilsheviks in your breakfast cereal? -- Technology in its social context: Initial reactions to the introduction of television, 1938-1953 -- Lentil soup -- Recent research on McLuhan's theory of context -- Natural language and computer conferencing -- Mass media and socialization: Inside stories: Goddis and television audiences -- Interpreting viewing: creating an acceptable context -- Ethnic diversity and mass-mediated experience -- Children, television and the acculturation process -- The cultivation of values by the media -- Sex, gender and family: The question of a sexuality of abuse in pornographic films -- The boys of prime time: an analysis of "new" male roles in television -- Reagan's America in television: return of the nuclear family -- Relationship development as represented as represented in contemporary American cinema -- Rethinking communication policy: Broadcasting policy: competition and public service -- Th internationalization of TV entertainment -- France confronts the new media: issues in national communications and cultural policy -- Participant observation and the study of African broadcast organizations --