Paul Lazarsfeld and the Origins of Communications Research

Hynek Jeřábek is a professor of sociology at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

Foreword to the English edition

Introduction

1. Contexts of Paul Lazarsfeld’s Communication Studies
1.1. Paul Lazarsfeld’s Life Story
1.2. The Social Context of Lazarsfeld’s Life and Work in Vienna
1.3. Place of Communication’s Research in the Context of Lazarsfeld’s Work
1.4. Paul Lazarsfeld’s Contribution to Communications Studies in Mass Communication Theory and Research Contexts

2. Paul Lazarsfeld’s First 'Communications Studies'
2.1. The early stages of cooperation with Austrian Radio - Psychological Experiments
2.2. Research on Radio-Wein Listeners - Lazarsfeld’s RAVAG Stusy
2.3. Magazines in American Cities - Secondary Analysis of Aggregate Data

3. Princeton’s Years of Radio Research
3.1. The Serach for a Project Director
3.2. The First Research Reports
3.3. Radio and the Printed Page
3.3.1. Analysing and Building Radio Audiences 3.3.2. Radio and Print: Reciprocal Influences
3.4. The Research Moves to Columbia University

4. The Radio Research Yearbooks During World War 2
4.1. Radio Broadcasting for Specific Groups of Listeners

4.2. Music Broadcasting Analysis and Paul Lazarsfeld’s Collaboration with
Theodore Adorno
4.3. Wartime Radio Broadcasting in America’s Democratic Society
4.4. Radio Audience Research in Great Britain
4.5. German Radio Propaganda - Research Project on Totalitarian Communication
4.6. Content Analysis of Daytime Serials and Social Analysis of Female Listeners
4.7. Research Uses of the ' Program Analyzer' and Measuring Its Validity
and Reliability

5. Two Major Studies by Paul Lazarsfeld’s Colleagues
5.1. Invasion from Mars - A Study of the Panic Caused by a Radio Broadcast
5.2. Mass Persuasion - War Bond Drive

6. Representative Studies of Radio Listeners
6.1. Listener Populatioins and Overlapping Audiences
6.2. Criticism of Advertising and Measuring Criticism

7. The Birth of Communication Research
7.1. Who Doesn’t Listen to Daytime Serials ? What advice for Radio Stations?
7.2. What Does it Mean for Readers to “Miss their Newspapers”?
7.3. Types of Personal Influence and Models of Influence in Local Communities: R. K. Merton's Study of Influence as an Example of a New Type of Comunication Research

8. Lazarsfeld’s Communications Research: Its Credo and its Contribution to Sociology