"In this critical examination of the beginnings of mass communications research in the United States - written from the perspective of an educational historian - Timothy Glander uses archival materials that have not been widely studied to document, contextualize, and interpret the dominant expressions of this field during the time in which it became rooted in American academic life, and tries to give articulation to the larger historical forces that gave the field its fundamental purposes. By mid-century, mass communications researchers had become recognized as experts in describing the effects of the mass media on learning and other social behavior. However, the conditions that promoted and sustained their authority as experts have not been adequately explored. This study analyzes the ideological and historical forces giving rise to, and shaping, their research."--Jacket.

Education and propaganda: the propaganda debate between the wars --Communications research comes of age -- Social ideas of American mass communications experts -- Paul F. Lazarsfeld and the Bureau of Applied Social Research -- Wilbur Schramm and the founding of communication study -- Universe of discourse in which we grew up.

CARL: 1 User