Personal Influence
Subtitle: the Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications
By: editors, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Elmo Roper
Contributors: Lazarsfeld, Paul F., author; Roper, Elmo, author
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 434
ISBN-13: 9781315126234
Subjects: Public opinion; Mass media; Public Opinion; Opinion publique; Médias
Description: "First published in 1955, "Personal Influence" reports the results of a pioneering study conducted in Decatur, Illinois, validating Paul Lazarsfeld's serendipitous discovery that messages from the media may be further mediated by informal "opinion leaders" who intercept, interpret, and diffuse what they see and hear to the personal networks in which they are embedded. This classic volume set the stage for all subsequent studies of the interaction of mass media and interpersonal influence in the making of everyday decisions in public affairs, fashion, movie-going, and consumer behavior. The contextualizing essay in Part One dwells on the surprising relevance of primary groups to the flow of mass communication. Peter Simonson of the University of Pittsburgh has written that "Personal Influence was perhaps the most influential book in mass communication research of the postwar era, and it remains a signal text with historic significance and ongoing reverberations ... more than any other single work, it solidified what came to be known as the dominant paradigm in the field, which later researchers were compelled either to cast off or build upon." In his introduction to this fiftieth-anniversary edition, Elihu Katz discusses the theory and methodology that underlie the Decatur study and evaluates the legacy of his coauthor and mentor, Paul F. Lazarsfeld."--Provided by publisher
Table of contents: title: Part PART ONE: THE PART PLAYED BY PEOPLE: A NEW FOCUS FOR THE STUDY OF MASS MEDIA EFFECTS; title: chapter Section One: Images of the Mass Communications Process; title: chapter Section Two: Norms and Networks in the Process of Persuasion: Linking Small Group Research with Mass Media Research; title: part PART TWO: THE FLOW OF EVERYDAY INFLUENCE IN A MIDWESTERN COMMUNITY; title: chapter Section One: Locating Personal Influence; title: chapter Section Two: The Impact of Personal Influence; title: chapter Section Three: The Flow of Personal Influence; title: chapter Section Four: Technical Appendices and Commentaries on fhe Research; title: chapter 2 Evaluation of the Results; title: chapter 3 Selection of Sample; title: part Appendix B.A Guide to the Questionnaire; title: chapter 1 Factual Decision Questions; title: chapter 2 The Impact Analysis; title: chapter 3 Sources of Potential Influence; title: chapter 5 Self-Designated Opinion Leadership; title: chapter 6 Correlates of Opinion Leadership; title: chapter 7 Other Attitude Questions; title: chapter 8 Extraneous Questions; title: part Appendix C. On Follow-up Interviewing and Analysis; title: chapter 1 The Evolution of the Follow-up Questionnaire; title: chapter 2 Two Kinds of Follow-up: Influential and Influencee; title: chapter 3 The Follow-up Mortality; title: chapter 4 Representativeness of the Follow-up Interview; title: chapter 5 On the Analysis of a Follow-up; title: chapter 1 An Inventory of Indices Appearing in the Text; title: chapter 2 Four Indices Discussed: Gregariousness, Social Status,; title: chapter 3 A Substantive Addendum: On Gregariousness, Anxiety and the Consumption of Popular-Fiction.