IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v608y2006i1p157-178.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Personal Influence and the New Paradigm: Some Inadvertent Consequences

Author

Listed:
  • Kurt Lang
  • Gladys Engel Lang

Abstract

An examination of the reception given Personal Influence when first published points to highly selective interpretations of the findings. The claims reviewers made for the influence of interpersonal communication relative to the mass media, especially in the political process, went even beyond those advanced by the authors. They overlooked not only the very restricted conceptualization of “effects†that guided the Decatur research but also previously accumulated evidence on multiple kinds of media influence. This article argues that the new conventional wisdom pitting personal versus mass media effects associated with this and previous studies in the Columbia tradition discouraged, however inadvertently, a coming generation of sociologists from researching the effects—particularly long-range effects—of mass communication. As a consequence, academic sociology came to cede much of the high ground it once occupied in media studies to political science and to more professionally oriented departments or schools of communication.

Suggested Citation

  • Kurt Lang & Gladys Engel Lang, 2006. "Personal Influence and the New Paradigm: Some Inadvertent Consequences," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 608(1), pages 157-178, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:608:y:2006:i:1:p:157-178
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716206292614
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716206292614
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716206292614?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jefferson Pooley, 2006. "Fifteen Pages that Shook the Field: Personal Influence, Edward Shils, and the Remembered History of Mass Communication Research," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 608(1), pages 130-156, November.
    2. David E. Morrison, 2006. "The Influences Influencing Personal Influence: Scholarship and Entrepreneurship," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 608(1), pages 51-75, November.
    3. John H. Summers, 2006. "Perpetual Revelations: C. Wright Mills and Paul Lazarsfeld," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 608(1), pages 25-40, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sonia Livingstone, 2006. "The Influence of Personal Influence on the Study of Audiences," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 608(1), pages 233-250, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sonia Livingstone, 2006. "The Influence of Personal Influence on the Study of Audiences," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 608(1), pages 233-250, November.
    2. Jefferson Pooley, 2006. "Fifteen Pages that Shook the Field: Personal Influence, Edward Shils, and the Remembered History of Mass Communication Research," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 608(1), pages 130-156, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:608:y:2006:i:1:p:157-178. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.