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News for inclusion in this section … activities of schools and departments of journalism, staff appointments and changes, curricular developments and the like … should be sent to Professor Root, School of Journalism, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N. Y. Notes for the next issue should reach him by January 1.

An experiment was done to test the effects of stylistic and rhetorical manipulations in specialized science writing on audience variables such as enjoyment, attitudes, and information gain. Articles on enzymology, polymer chemistry, and plasma physics were prepared, and, with content held constant, variations were made in textual variables such as sentence length, vocabulary difficulty, the amount of analogy used, and so on. The effects of these manipulations were tested on three audiences: junior college students, university students, and professional scientists. Among the study's findings were: some stylistic and rhetorical manipulations do have effects on audience variables, but more with less-qualified audiences; a given body of content can be varied across a wide range of vocabulary and sentence length; students' attitudes toward science are nearly as favorable as those of professional scientists; and professional scientists appreciate a simple style of presentation as much as students do.

By manipulating stylistic variables in 'information modules', this experimental study demonstrates that science reporting can be 'styled' to maximize its effectiveness.

In recent yrs a number of theoretical formulations have been made to account for attitude change (AC). Some of these have been applications of more general theory while others were devised esp to deal with AC; all are concerned with AC as effects of communications. The more general applicable theories include Festinger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance & Heider's Balance Theory & learning theory. Some of the esp devised approaches are McGuire's Rational-Syllogistic formulation, Rosenberg's Affective -Cognitive Consistency approach, Osgood's Congruity theory, & Newcomb's Strain toward Symmetry. Brehm, Cohen, J. S. Adams, Romney, & the Maccobys have recently applied Dissonance theory to AC problems. Cartwright & Harary have developed theoretical applications to AC from Heider's Balance theory. Most of these theoretical approaches have at least one major characteristic in common. All involve a balance of forces approach in which the overloading of one type of factor gives rise to changes designed to restore balance; all employ homeostasis in some form. A large body of work in AC stems from traditional learning theory, notably the work of Hovland & his colleagues. It is felt that while one can make derivations from learning theory to dissonance or balance theory, the 2 points of view have produced considerably diff emphases & diff choice of res problems. According to learning theorists, one cannot comfortably hold inconsistent att's or beliefs because they produce conflicting action tendencies; & in the presence of such tendencies, the state of conflict itself becomes a drive which spurs the individual into some activity designed to resolve conflict. Conflict produced by holding incompatible att's would be theoretically no diff than a conflict of incompatible motor habits. Learning theorists have tended to range further afield in their choice of motive systems to manipulate in order to produce AC. AC is a process that presumably does not occur in a single instant of time, even though the over manifestation may occur as a single event when sufficient covert `bits' have been learned to result in a kind of `flopover' in response to a question. The underlying process may still be thought of as a cumulative one, to which the concept of the learning curve applies. Learning theorists have pointed to the importance of covert practice or rehearsal of a message during the post-communication period & have been concerned with the conditions which facilitate or interfere with such practice. A central issue is how the aroused motivation gets channeled into AC. This is where homeostatic theorists have made some of their greatest contributions. Much res & theorizing has been centered around the identification of the conditions which determine whether dissonance, or imbalance, or inconsistency, will result in AC or in some alternative course of action. AA.

The usefulness of quantitative methods in judging newspaper bias is demonstrated by this investigation, in which indices of objectivity are developed for a sample of eight prominent U. S. dailies. Matched on the basis of circulation, four of the papers supported Eisenhower and four were for Stevenson.