“A Uniting Force:” Irish Music on U.S. Radio

Ethnic music of all kinds has had a powerful influence on American popular music throughout history, and this is certainly true of Irish music. For nearly 100 years, radio has been a vital conduit for conveying musical influences of all kinds to listeners and musicians alike. This qualitative study analyzes Irish radio broadcasting in the United States The article is based upon an open-ended survey of U.S. broadcasters of Irish music programs in the top 10 markets and provides a summary of their recent playlists.     

Local Radio Audiences in Iran: An Analysis of Ardebilian People's Trust in and Satisfaction with “Sabalan” Radio

There are numerous local radio stations across Iran. Considering the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural characteristics of their audiences, local stations endeavor to produce and broadcast diverse programs. One local station is “Sabalan” situated in Ardebil province in northwest Iran. Since the audience of this station speaks the same language as the inhabitants of the neighboring countries of Azerbaijan and Turkey, whether Sabalan can attract and satisfy its audience becomes significant. The paper is the result of a research project done in relation to the extent to which the Ardebilian audience is satisfied by Sabalan and trusts its programs. The findings reveal that the audience is less than satisfied with Sabalan and has almost no trust in the news, information, and programs. The reasons they mention for their attitude are: censorship of the news and little reflection of reality, lack of respect for indigenous culture and language, and broadcasting too many programs in Persian.     

“Shock” meets “community service”: J.C. Corcoran at KMOX

KMOX‐AM in St. Louis hired J.C. Corcoran to try to update its sound. Corcoran and KMOX represented two contrasting styles in talk radio— “shock”; and “community service.”; These styles can be seen as reflecting two visions of America—a modernist vision of civic discourse and public participation, and a postmodernist vision in which distinctions have blurred between the public and private spheres and between news and entertainment. The authors qualitatively examine the talk on a program hosted by a “shock jock”; on a respected news‐talk radio station.     

The problematic status of u.s. statistics on race and ethnicity: An “imperfect representation of reality”

This article extends Stratford's brief observations about the problematic status of racial and ethnic group statistics to a discussion of the relationship among these statistics, public policy, and the conceptual status of race and ethnicity. Federal statistics are organizational products that are socially constructed. They represent the implementation of public policies that govern political, social, and economic life. It is the interaction between politics and the subjective meaning of race and ethnicity that is responsible for the continual modification of racial and ethnic group statistics. The article discusses the premises on which racial and ethnic group statistics have been based and illustrates how they were implemented in the instructions of the decennial censuses for classifying the race and ethnicity of the population. The article then summarizes some of the empirical evidence from recent research conducted by federal agencies and social scientists to show that racial and ethnic group statistics produced by government record keeping systems have no objective status. The meaning of race and ethnicity is contextual, situational, and subjective, and, thus, how respondents and observers define these concepts has significant consequences for the quality of federal statistics.     

“I call him father of us all”: vicarious transcendence at the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center*

This essay advocates closer attention to the relationship between transcendent rhetoric and public memory sites. Through an analysis of the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, Mississippi, the essay introduces the concept of vicarious transcendence, a powerful, yet underexplored mode of public discourse that highlights how visitors arrive at a transcendent state via the transcendent journey of another agent. As the state’s premier destination for blues tourists, the King Museum also becomes a vehicle for Mississippi’s vicarious transcendence of its own legacy of slavery and systemic racism.     

A Review of: “David H. Weaver,Randal A. Beam,Bonnie J. Brownlee,Paul S. Voakes,and G. Cleveland Wilhoit. The American Journalist in the 21st Century: U.S. News People at the Dawn of a New Millennium.”

Amy Reynolds and Brooke Barnett (Eds). Communication and Law: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2006 394 pp., ISBN 0805849424 (hardcover).     

A Review of: “Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction. 2nd ed., by Cassell,Kay Ann and Hiremath,Uma.”

The status of library consortia has evolved over time in terms of their composition and alternative negotiating models. New purchasing models may allow improved library involvement in the acquisitions process and improved methods for meeting users' future needs. Ever-increasing costs of library resources and the need to reduce expenses make it necessary to continue the exploration of library consortia for group purchases.     

Between the Structural and the Personal: Situated Sense-Makings of “Race” This research was supported by a grant from the MOSAIC Multicultural Center at San Jose State University.

Using a critical intercultural communication perspective and cultural studies interviewing method, this study traces individuals’ subjective sense-makings of diversity through the trope of “race.” Such sense-makings represent the key (and taken-for-granted) locus of the structural and personal where social actors live out the constructions of diversity and race in deeply felt ways. Our study reveals how individuals articulate and understand race via raceless diversity encodings (whereby race is seemingly stripped of its power inequalities, and all racial/ethnic groups are made equal) and racial pivoting (whereby participants both discursively pull away from and move toward race to suit their individual experiences).