Paul F. Lazarsfeld

The people's choice.

В своей классической работе «Выбор народа» группа авторов под руководством Пола Лазарсфельда впервые комплексно исследует влияние масс медиа на электоральное поведение на примере президентской кампании Рузвельта-Уилки 1940 года. На протяжении семи месяцев авторы опрашивают около 3000 респондентов и приходят к выводу, что мнение большинства людей зависит не напрямую от СМИ, а от других членов их первичных групп, которые и являются активными потребителями медиа-продукции. Этих людей авторы назвали прочно вошедшим в научный обиход термином «лидеры мнения».

An Introduction to Applied Sociology.

The authors develop a theory of social science utilization that focuses on cognitive processes and their relation to the social context of interaction between social scientists and policy-makers. Their comprehensive approach to the theory of utilization is based on the full range of available case material.

The American Solidier—An Expository Review

PUBLICATION of The American Soldier constitutes an event of first importance in the world of social research. Although the studies on which the book is based were made in response to military needs, they contain a mine of information and insights for all persons concerned with human behavior. Many of the findings are of direct relevance to the industrial psychologist, the educator, and the public relations specialist, as well as to the social theoretician, the opinion researcher, and the military policy maker. At the request of the QUARTERLY, Professor Lazarsfeld has provided a brief guide to the first two of these four encyclopedic volumes, and has highlighted the significance of many of the findings reported therein. Contributions to such key concepts of sociology and psychology as the primary group, frame of reference, and the influence of role and position are discussed, and a birds-eye view of the major experiments and findings is given, together with some of their major implications. The author is Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, and President of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

Public Opinion and the Classical Tradition

The speculative approach to public opinion characteristic of the last century and the current empirical approach may be seen as supplementary rather than antithetical. Modern research techniques can confirm and develop notions advanced by classical writers, while authors such as Dicey andBryce can help direct present-day researchers to significant problems and suggest new ways of analyzing empirical data. Merging of the two approaches will hasten the development of a more adequate theory of public opinion.

THE “PANEL” AS A NEW TOOL FOR MEASURING OPINION

Dr. Lazarsfeld, who was for many years engaged in social and psychological research at the University of Vienna, and subsequently became director of the Research Center of the University of Newark, is Research Associate in the School of Public Affairs, Princeton University. He is also Research Director of the Princeton Radio Project, an investigation supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. Miss Fiske (A.B. Mt. Holyoke, A.M. Columbia) is an assistant in the Radio Project.

Audience Research in the Movie Field

DURING the last two decades communications research has become a rather distinct field within the social sciences. The war, especially, has contributed to its progress because so many government agencies made use of these new techniques. It has become habitual, in teaching communications research, to divide the material into four sections. One deals with the problems of social control. How are the communications industries organized economically? What kind of people make the decisions? What role do the unions play? Then there is the entire area of content analysis. How can one properly describe and interpret the content of movies or newspapers or radio programs? What changes have been made in them in the course of time? What types of problems and what kinds of characters are prominent? The third main area is the analysis of the composition of the audience. And the fourth deals with the shortand long-range effects which the mass media have upon people and upon the community as a whole.

The Obligations of the 1950 Pollster to the 1984 Historian

The American Association for Public Opinion research and history. This article is an extended Research at its last meeting instituted a Presiversion of his speech including material which, dential Evening as an occasion on which the because of limitations of time, could not be Association takes stock of some of its major presented at Lake Forest. problems. At Lake Forest, Elmo Roper, upon Dr. Lazarsfeld is chairman of the Departthe invitation of the president, discussed the ment of Sociology at Columbia and Associate relation between academic and commercial Director of the Bureau of Applied Social Republic opinion research. Then the president search. discussed the relation between public opinion

THE ELECTION IS OVER

How MUCH does the campaign matter? Do all the speeches made, all the millions spent, affect the outcome appreciably? How much of the vote is really available? Politicians and scholars have long had their answers to these questions, but the answers were necessarily pure speculation. In this article Paul Lazarsfeld, Director of Columbia Universitys Office of Radio Research, gives another kind of answer-one based on a good deal more than speculation. It will intrigue scholars, as it may well disconcert politicians, The article is a summary of the book, Votes in the Making, by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet, a forthcoming publication of the American Council of Public Affairs.

The Policy Science Movement (An Outsider's View)

An assessment is made of the expanding policy sciences movement—the proliferation of policy science centers, the existence of a specialized journal, and the large number of programmatic books being published. This paper focuses on the role that policy scientists assign to themselves in the whole decision process, i.e., their strategy. Four characteristics of the policy scientists self-image are discussed: his work should include reassessment of a problems goals; he represents a new type of professional; he cannot be expected to contribute to the general knowledge of specific academic disciplines; he is concerned with making recommendations that are acceptable to his sponsor. The research style of the policy scientist is examined, and four basic characteristics of this style are identified: a tendency to bypass microsociological data; an interest in futurism; an emphasis on a so-called systems approach; and an identification with interdisciplinarity.

Philosophy of Science and Empirical Social Research

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the way the philosophers of science are unfair to empirical social research. The modern philosophers of science are only concerned with the natural sciences; when occasionally they turn to the social sciences, they talk of Herbert Spencer or some other scholars who are concerned with the development of all societies from beginning to end. The philosophers of science do not pay attention to the empirical work in social research that is going on today. The chapter points out the example that comes from Carl Hempel and has an ironic implication. Hempel, probably without knowing it, had a considerable and highly salutary effect on empirical social research. The other example is somewhat more complex and still leaves work to be done by volunteers from the philosophical camp. The development of sampling and interviewing techniques temporarily shifted the trend of research in the direction of attitude surveys.