Paul F. Lazarsfeld

On February 13, 1901, the famous sociologist Paul F. Razasfield was born.

character brief introduction

Paul F. Razarsfield is an Austrian-American and a famous sociologist. Graduated from the University of Vienna with a doctorate in philosophy, humanities and law. Lazarsfield was the one who had the greatest influence on later communication research methods. In 1932, he was the first to conduct radio research in Vienna using the field survey method. Later, he established the Applied Sociology Research Center at the University of Colombia in the United States, and worked with the famous sociologist Robert King Merton for many years. He proposed the "second-level communication theory"(later developed into the "multi-level communication" theory), which opened the way for the study of communication effects and communication mechanisms. He also proposed influential concepts such as "the role of existing political tendencies", selective contact mechanisms, and opinion leaders. Razarsfield has made important contributions to research methods and is known as the "tool maker" of communication research. By continuously improving sampling survey techniques and quantitative analysis methods, he has won respect for communication science from other sciences. His representative works include "Communication Research" and "Individual Influence: The Role of Individuals in Mass Communication".

Main works

Lazarsfield's main works include: Mathematical Thinking in Social Sciences (1954), Voters 'Choice (1968), Qualitative Analysis (1972), and Introduction to Applied Sociology (1975). Among them,"The People's Choice" co-completed by Lazarsfield and his assistants is called "one of the most complex surveys and studies in the history of social sciences" and is also a classic work on communication effect research.

Another important contribution to communication research is the mathematical (quantitative) research method he created. The mathematical model of social investigation he pioneered can effectively conduct potential structure and group analysis of social communication; the cross-listing method he pioneered is conducive to studying the relationship between communication variables and analyzing related communication phenomena. In short, Lazarsfield is not only the pioneer of a series of important communication theories, but also the pioneer of quantitative research methods in communication research.

Lazarsfeld's The People's Choice

"People's Choice" uses Lazarsfield's unique method (mathematical model of the "Lazarsfield Index") and uses the 1940 U.S. presidential election as an analytical case to try to explain how voters make voting choices under the influence of mass media and interpersonal relationships.

Four years later, Lazarsfield and his colleagues at the University of Colombia published two research reports entitled "The People's Choice"(1944) and "Election"(1945). Research has shown that most voters had made the decision on how to vote long before the campaign propaganda, and only about 5% of them changed their voting intentions due to the propaganda. The reason why these people "defected" halfway was that the campaign propaganda was only indirect. Influence, and its direct influence comes from "opinion leaders" such as relatives, friends, and groups. The research of Lazarsfield and others (including "Personal Influence" 1952) not only dispelled the superstition that the "power of radio" in the "Magic Bullet Theory" is extremely powerful, and discovered the reasons why the direct effects of mass media are very limited, but also discovered the "middle station" of information dissemination-the special character of opinion leaders, which led to the emergence of "limited effect theory","two-level communication theory" and even "multi-level communication theory", initially revealing the complexity of social communication.

As one of the landmark works in American academic history,"People's Choice" has made groundbreaking contributions to mass communication research in research methods and research design. Through a study of public opinion in the 1940 U.S. election, it explained in a simple way the media effect, people's social attributes and interpersonal connections during the election campaign, and proposed concepts such as "two-level communication flow" and "opinion leader" that are receiving increasing attention in today's new media era., thus achieving the academic value of this book and establishing the leading author Razarsfield's pioneering position in communication as a "tool maker."