Paul Lazarsfeld and the Origins of Communications Research

Hynek Jerabek reviews and celebrates Paul Lazarsfeld's pioneering role in the establishment of empirical social science, particularly in the field of communication. The book dwells on the ingenuity displayed in Lazarsfeld's earliest work, theoretical and methodological, and on the organizational settings that he created. And, lest we forget, the book reminds us of the intellectual vibrancy of Lazarsfeld's Vienna. - Professor (emeritus) Elihu Katz, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Paul F. Lazarsfeld belongs to the small group of scientists who are most frequently quoted in international social science journals. What is today called organized social research owes much to his having pioneered the establishing and institutionalization of this type of research in the form of the Columbia University Bureau of Applied Social research and its predecessors. His contributions to the social sciences were of diverse styles and in diverse substantive domains (from mass communication to voting behaviour and from unemployment to the impact of McCarthyanism on American academic life), but, quite evidently, his most influential work in the social sciences has been of methodological nature as many scholars have confirmed. Hynek Jerabek is a scholar well informed about all these topics and he is a devoted Lazarsfeld-researcher. His book opens useful and worthwhile insights on the early days of Paul F. Lazarsfelds communication research, including the famous RAVAG-study of 1931 in Vienna, on the founding and development of the diverse research institutes, and on the progress of methodology of social research inspired by Paul F. Lazarsfeld. The text is particularly suited to introduce the interested reader to life and work of Paul F. Lazarsfeld. - Professor Anton Amann, University of Vienna This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the origins of communication research. For English speaking scholars unfamiliar with Lazarsfeld's Viennese communication research then Jerabek's account of Lazarsfeld's radio research will prove fascinating as well as instructive to his later work in America. This is a 'must read book' on the history of the field. - Professor David E. Morrison, University of Leeds This volume remembers the multiple scientific merits of Paul Lazarsfeld, particularly in the field of research methodology. It will be appreciated by students of political science and sociology, as well as by historians of political and social research, and its methods. - Dr Michal Illner, The Institute of Sociology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Hynek Jerabek is a known expert in the field of Lazarsfelds, respectively lazarsfeldian methodology, where he has already published a number of monographs and scientific studies. In this book, he clearly demonstrates the methodological innovations and institutional context of the communication research, which was founded, and in the 30s and 40s successfully developedby P.F. Lazarsfeld. Jerabeks book demonstrates the basic principles and methods of communication research, but also integrates a perspective on methodological dimension of communication research within its historical dimension. It is a rare approach in sociological literature, and is both beneficial and inspiring. This book is highly recommended to all those interested in communication research. - Professor Juraj Schenk, Comenius University