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Workers with freedom report higher employee satisfaction

February 23, 2011 coms 0

Workers who feel they have autonomy – that they are free to make choices in the workplace and be accountable for them – are happier and more productive according to an extensive research literature review. Yet there’s no universal cross-cultural definition of autonomy.

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MSNBC reports women are dominating social media

February 22, 2011 coms 0

Thomas Roberts from MSNBC Live interviews Johanna Blakley, the Deputy Director of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center on February 9, 2011. Blakley speaks about how women are dominating the social media sphere.

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What your TV habits may say about your fear of crime

February 18, 2011 coms 0

What’s your favorite prime-time crime show? Do you enjoy the fictional world of “CSI” or “Law & Order,” or do you find real-life tales like “The First 48” or “Dateline” more engrossing? Your answers to those questions may say a lot about your fears and attitudes about crime, a new study finds.

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Swear Words Less Offensive on Cable Than Broadcast TV

February 7, 2011 coms 0

Four letter words may offend you more depending on which television channel you watch, according to a recent study out of Florida State University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This study, published in the January issue of Mass Communication and Society, found that some TV viewers believe swearing on premium channels and cable is less offensive than vulgarity on broadcast channels. Similarly, viewers are more tolerant of swearing on the premium channels than they are on the advertiser supported cable channels. This differs from previous research, which found that how swear words reach people does not affect how offensive they are.

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The Language of Young Love: The Ways Couples Talk Can Predict Relationship Success

February 1, 2011 coms 1

We know that people tend to be attracted to, date, and marry other people who resemble themselves in terms of personality, values, and physical appearance. However, these features only skim the surface of what makes a relationship work. The ways that people talk are also important. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people who speak in similar styles are more compatible.

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Megalomaniac CEOs: Good or Bad for Company Performance?

January 26, 2011 coms 0

According to a new study, dominant CEOS, who are powerful figures in the organization as compared to other members of the top management team, drive companies to extremes of performance. Unfortunately for shareholders, the performance of a company with an all powerful CEO can be either much worse than other companies, or much better. But there is one solution to an all powerful CEO: a strong board of directors. Companies with strong boards counteract powerful CEOS, and swing the tide of performance to the plus side. This study on dominating CEOs and powerful boards is now published in the Journal of Management Studies.

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Sign languages help us understand the nature of metaphors

January 26, 2011 coms 0

A recent study of the use of metaphors in spoken language and various sign languages shows that certain types of metaphors are difficult to convey in sign language. The study, “Iconicity and metaphor: Constraints on metaphorical extension of iconic forms,” to be published in the December 2010 issue of the scholarly journal Language, is authored by Irit Meir of the University of Haifa.

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SAGE Launches Networking Site: Communicationspace

January 25, 2011 coms 0

SAGE, the world’s leading independent academic and professional publisher, recently announced the launch of a new social networking site for the academic community: Communicationspace for media studies and communication.