Paul Lazarsfeld and the Origins of Communications Research

<p>The manuscript discusses the early days of communication research, explicitly the first works of Paul Lazarsfeld’s radio and media research in Vienna, Newark, NJ, Princeton and New York during the years between the early 1930s, and the end of the 1940s. Lazarsfeld’s Viennese radio research, especially the world’s first extensive audience research – RAVAG study (1931) – is entirely new information for English speaking scholars. The book shows the details of Lazarsfeld’s methodological reasoning in his projects in the field of communication. The book also presents the research institutes that Lazarsfeld founded in Vienna in 1931, from Newark Center in New Jersey (1935) to Princeton Office of Radio Research in 1937, and up to the foundation of Lazarsfeld’s famous BASR at Columbia University in New York in the 1940s. The monograph shows how important Lazarsfeld’s first studies were for the future development of communication. </p> <p>Foreword to the English edition</p><p></p><p>Introduction</p><p></p><p>1. Contexts of Paul Lazarsfeld’s Communication Studies<br>1.1. Paul Lazarsfeld’s Life Story<br>1.2. The Social Context of Lazarsfeld’s Life and Work in Vienna <br>1.3. Place of Communication’s Research in the Context of Lazarsfeld’s Work<br>1.4. Paul Lazarsfeld’s Contribution to Communications Studies in Mass Communication Theory and Research Contexts</p><p></p><p>2. Paul Lazarsfeld’s First 'Communications Studies'<br>2.1. The early stages of cooperation with Austrian Radio - Psychological Experiments<br>2.2. Research on Radio-Wein Listeners - Lazarsfeld’s RAVAG Stusy <br>2.3. Magazines in American Cities - Secondary Analysis of Aggregate Data</p><p></p><p>3. Princeton’s Years of Radio Research<br>3.1. The Serach for a Project Director<br>3.2. The First Research Reports<br>3.3. Radio and the Printed Page<br>3.3.1. Analysing and Building Radio Audiences 3.3.2. Radio and Print: Reciprocal Influences <br>3.4. The Research Moves to Columbia University</p><p></p><p>4. The Radio Research Yearbooks During World War 2 <br>4.1. Radio Broadcasting for Specific Groups of Listeners </p><p></p><p>4.2. Music Broadcasting Analysis and Paul Lazarsfeld’s Collaboration with <br>Theodore Adorno<br>4.3. Wartime Radio Broadca</p>