When the controversial book, "Personal Influence: The Part
Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications," was published
in 1955, it made waves across the fields of communications, public
opinion research, political science, and marketing. Written by
Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld, "Personal Influence" became the
canonical statement of the two-step flow of communication, which
posits that mass media flow to opinion leaders, who in turn
influence the behavior and opinions of people around them.
Throughout the last half of a century, "Personal Influence" has
undergone rigorous critique, appeared in numerous citations, and
become a key text in the history of mass communications. Why is a
rereading of this text relevant now?
Upon the 50th anniversary of the publishing of "Personal
Influence," the editors of this volume of "The ANNALS "believed it
was an ideal time to reflect upon the book s mid-century contexts
and contemporary drawing upon enrichments of the field provided by
feminism, critical and cultural studies, the new historicism, and
progress in the social sciences. This unique volume of "The ANNALS"
crosses generational, disciplinary, and national boundaries to
piece together and pull apart a historically important text and use
it to shed light on the contemporary environment.
Essays in this volume analyze the personalities who played key
roles in the making of "Personal Influence," their origins and
social identities, the institutional organization of research in
which it evolved, and the disciplinary consequences of its success.
Other authors reread Katz and Lazarfeld s classic as a way to
explore the relations between citizenship and consumption, the
nature of media and political involvement today, and the relevance
of the two-step flow paradigm for the study of contemporary
audiences, social networks, and public campaigns.
A must-read for scholars, students, and professionals in the
fields of communication, public opinion, political science,
sociology, and marketing, this volume of "The ANNALS" dusts off a
time-worn text and renews its significance in the field of mass
communications with modern scholarly perspectives and contemporary
methodology experience, inspiring a fresh outlook on this
historical force. "
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