remarks on administrative and critical communication research

8/12/2019 Remarks on Administrative and Critical Communication Research

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LAZARSFELD, Paul(1941).

Remarks on Administrative and Critical

Communications Research

Studies in Philosophy and Social Science, vol. 9, p. 2-16.


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2 Paul Feli.J. Launfdd

Remarks onAdminjstrative and Critical CommunicatioD8 Researeh.

By P a u l Fe l ix Laza ra f e ld .During the lut two decades the media of mass communication.notably radio, print and film, have become some of the .beat-knownand best documented spheres of mod ,em society . Careful studies

have revealed the size of the audiences of all major radio prograrnaand the composition of this audiern:e in respect to sex, income, and afew other criteria. The circulations of newspapers and magazines arerecorded by 8pecially organized research outfits, and others reportcurrently on which maguine storics and which advertisements areread week by week. Boob, radio programs. and moviee arc tested Ito the difficulty of the language they use and 85 to how adequate theyarc for the different educational levels of the population. The types ofentertainment that diHerent groups of people prefer are beiDa investigated all the time, a.nd many promotional campaigns are testedcurrently as to their success. A number of important new techniqueshave been developed in the course of aU these research efIorta.Modem aampling techniques, for instance, bave made great progreubecause it bas been realized that the practical value of a study wouldbe lost i f it were conducted among a group of people wbo are Dotrepresentative of those sections of the population which the sponJO ring agency wants to reach. Interviewing techniques have been greatlyrefined for similar reasom. The competitive character of much ofthis work bas led to ever better methods of recording facta as to theextent of listening and reading. Where a subject mailer doesn't lenditself to simple recording devices, great progress has been made indeveloping indices for complex attitudes and reactions.1Behind the idea of such research is the notion that modem mediaof communication are tools handled. by people or agencies forgiven purposes. The purpose may be to sell goods, or to rai Cthe intellectual standards of the population, or to secure an under.standing of governmental policies. but in all cases, to someone who

'FOf leneral oritntat ion ill the fidd Douill . . Wapla.. . ' ' R t J ~ l u I f )People, Unhen ily of Chicaao P r - . 1940 and Pallll . Lu.anfdd. Raio .,.,. llie Pri . alrq e , Duell. 51. . . . and Ptaf. 1940. ror more CllITMI alld .pecilic Ili lormal'oll thedm OpillUln Quanul . pv.bUlhed by the PrinOdOJl l l i ~ t y Pr - . the be tM)UTCO of anlde- ad blbUopaphy.


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Adminiatutive and Critical Communication Reaearcb 3uses a medium for something, it is th e task of research to make thetool better known. and thus to facilitate its use.As a result, all communications research centers around a stand-ard set of problema. Who are the people expullt:d to the differentmedia? What are their specific preferenccs? What are the effectsof different methods of presentation? One who uses media of com-munication is n competition with other agencies whose purposes aredifferent, and thus research must also keep track of what is com-municated by others. Finally, communications research has to beaware thai the effect of radio, print, or the movie, does not end withthe purposive use which is made of it by administrative agenciee. Uadvertisera. for example., feel that radio is an eepecially powerfulselling device, thcn printed media will receive less money, andresearch will have to see wbether radio brings about a general deteri-oration of the reading habits of the population.Studies of this kind are conducted partly by the major publishing organizations and radio networkt and farUY by academic agenciessupported by universities or foundatiOn . Con iderable thought hasheen given during the past years to clarifying thc social and politicalimplications of this new branch of social research. Its relationshipto the present crisis is very interestingly discussed in a new study byHarold Lasswell,' One who ha s not participated in work of this kindcan get a good picture of its atmosphere from a fable written byparticipants in the course of a series of discussions whi ch took placeduring 1939 and 1940. We quote:

In the inleTelta of concretenea&, let us altempt to alate the job of researchin mau communication in a s.ituation which. though purely hypo thetical,aervet to illuauate wh.t that job involves.Let ua suppoae th.t government leaden and thoae reaponaible (or m~ u n i c a t i o n are in agreement with respect to policy toward alien groupe

in this country. Th e public, they believe, Mould be made .ware of thedangera of lubvenivc activities on the part of aliens, but popular antipathytoward aliena in general Mould be. minimited. and. above all, outbreaks ofantialien lentimcnt Mo uld be avoided. The policy that the channels ofmau communication muM ae.rve, then, becomes one of increMing public.,,areneu of apecific dangera of subversive action, while, at the lame time,building tolerance toward aliena in general.'Amon,. thc un ivcnitlet. the Univer.ily of OIie&&o Library School &lid the Unlvcullyof Minnesota louruliam Sehool arc etpe


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Paul Felix Lu.ar.fddSuppose that sowe popular eve ning radio program, known toaUract a colllliderahle portion of the total listening audience, includet anaddreu do.1mg with the dangers of aubvenive activities on the part of aliena.The explicit intention of the speaker, of hill 8pOMOn., .nd of the statiOniwhich carry the program is limply to further the policy outlined above bydr.willS aueution to danger. to which the col.l ntTy should be .:live. New.dispaLchea of the ext day or two, h O ~ bring reports from various p u bof the country of outbreaks of feeling against &Jim groupe. Re port. of localutterances in con nection with these outbreaks carry aUu.ionl to th broadca,t addre&ll of the evening. A result, there is at leut a ItrOng .utpicionthat &Orne cCJnnection exiets between them and what was d on the eveningbroadcu t.SuPPO $C, too, that thoae rcspoDlliblc for th original . d d . . decide thatthey arc likewise rcapoDlible for d o ~ aomething to repair the damAfjewhich tbey qui te innocaltly caused. Tb. . decision takes on new importancea the network involved receives from the Federal Communications Com

mission a requeat for the text of the addreu. Comicientioul effort to repairthe damage, it ill clear, involves leaming more of what the damage wThe comment it occuioned in the prell makes clear that ihl effechl were {eltnot through the radio alolle, Lut tJU uugh n:poTta of the: unfortunate add rellllwhich the new .papen carried, in the loca l utterallCf;l wh ich alluded to it, andeven in some widely distributed newuee1 teporta of the local outbreaks thatfoUowed. What people them mUlt


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Administrative aDd Critiea1 Communication Reseuclt 5work. what aeemed innocent refere:ncee to the lew aliera bdieved to betngaged in aubversive activities were taken by listeners to apply both toaliena generally and to hyphenatea from countriea thoutht hoati1e to Americaninterest. aDd traditiona. Some of the indhidual h.t.enic: and the pollreporta &how an equally surpriaing attilude of general hostilily toward thesegroupe. Some of them apceifically allude to what are laken 10 be racialtraill of the group invo lved, others to apecific individual. of th e group whoare in bu.inCil competition with the informants. Still others mention seemingly authentic reporta of Fifth Column activities in conquered Europeanoountriea ; and a coI.iderable number reler to purported activities of thiskind in the United StatCII and in South Arnertea. Oe.rly the stage was ac ton the evening of the broadew for what actually happened both by thegeneral peycbological predispoeition of listenen and by the fo rce of recentevents.

"AU thi. of counc dearly contributed to the unU lual attention thil particular broadcast rcceived-on the part of the radio audience, through thepreu diepatches which reported it, in the newsreels, and through the localutteraooes which ensued. Curiously too, the program in which the addreeawa included on th il particular evening had a larger audience than usual.III rating on that evening, u reported by audience resean::h agencies, jumpedlubstantially from its customary levd. To be l ure, the inclusion of this par.ticular addreu had een announced in advance, and by coincidence on thispa rticular evening another r.:pular progtMD ordinarily broadcast at the aamelime, had gone off the air or the 'ummer. Thi other program, il wu generaJly auumed, appealed more to leu educated li. tem: ... wi lh the apparentresult that the audience for th ie addreq included, perhape for the first time,more listeners of lowe r educational Ilalul suppoaillon confirmed by abreakdown of audience reaean:h figures in tennJ of lOCioonomic .latusand by a chcclt of the ratings of other p r o ~ r a m broadeut t the ume hour,none of which roac above their usual raling and eome of which aho""ed amarked decline.wHow 10 repair th e damage done thus becomes more problematical thallhod at .fint appeared. Obvioualr.' another addrcu to counteract the one...hich had caused the damage wou d not be .ufficient. Comparable announcements of it might of course .,.ain attract to the program much the limeaudience u the week before. But, it is pointed out, there i no reuon toUIIume Ihat the predilpoAition. of listeners or the force of circumltanecawo uld again lead them to depart from their ordinary lislening habib. Fur.thennore:. there is no uaurance, for much the lame reuonl that a counter-acting addreaa would occuion equaJ au.cntion in the preu or in local ulter-ancea. Finally, the original lpeake.r is undoubtedly now finnly identified,in the minds of liltenen, with the viewl on alien and hyphenate groupeattribultld to him as a reluh of his earlier addNlU. Would another addreuby him change that identification? What, then, can be done?

" In the I.oe of thit prohlem cornea the suggeallon that outside adviceMould be had. Un a thi. broadeut is to go down in record as the begin.ning of a destructive wave of feel ing againtt ll aliena and hyphen.ta andthus utterly defeat the interest which prompted it, any remedial meuumahave to be moet carefully planned. Who i. there who can contribute to better understanding of what happened, and who to IUSSelt what might bedone by way of remedy?


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6 Paul Fdi. LaunfddSuppose at thil point help is sought from a tocial peychologit.t: knownto have been stu dyi ng antiminority feeling. When be i called in it appe.nthat he haa for so metime been recording and analyzing whatever .ppeain the press, the radio. motion piCtUfe5, or in public utterances that seem

to have a bea ring on the lubjecL He points out that this it not an isolatedepisode, but rather, one more in a development which he bad for IIOme timebeen following. lust such anti.minority feeling had been developing in thecountry ove r a period of yean. The growth of antiSemitic eentiment inthis country had been well recognized, and now the lame feelings aeemed tobe shifting to other acapego.ta.According to hi, .nalyaia. the recen t How of mass communication hadreflected this general trend. The leon 'Fifth Co lumn,' obscurely used inthe Spanish Civil War, bad had wide currency. In fact the Allies badmissed few opportunities to emph asize the concept, u for example, in theirUM of Major Quialing'a name. At the same time, reports of Filth Columnactivities in the other conquered countries had been com ing through, 1Up-ported in still more rece nt timca by revelations of limilar activities in SouthAmerica. Thus., strong proAll y feeling in this country. IUpported by thegrow ing predilpolition to fear and feel hoatility towud minority groups, ledto the overgeneraliHt io n of the remark. made in the broadoast addreaa.

Such feelings, the specialist might go on to point out. would be Icaarestrained among ICII educated and lese self-comcioua groups. Furthermore.th CAC groups in his opin ion wou ld be leN likely to respond to any intellectualappeal th at might be devised to counteract the effect of the earlier till. Thil,he adviael, mUll be kept in mind u rem edial meaaurell IltC planned. In fact,is in doubt as to what any single remedial effort can aecomplish. Rather inee the talk in question was no iso lated example, remedial effo rt must takeinto account all the oth er fac torl in current mau communication whichtend, as he 5CCII it, to arOUM jult IUch anti.minority feeling. To repair thedamage, he po inla out, it ia neccuary to detennine who muat be reached, notonly in terms of geoguphical coverllge. but in paychological terllll . . well.Hia 6nal advice at this tago il then:fore to tum to another ~ i l i l t whoh. . atudied bo th the geographical and peychological oompoaition of theaudience reached by varioua types of mUll communicati on.Thi, lpecialiat, when called in. readily con6nna from his own observations that the program on the night in queation re.ched an audience psycholugically different from that it usually attracted. To reach that audiencenecessitatee in hia opinion close attention to th e limning, reading, moviegoing habib of the part of the population affcoted by the original broadeUlHe know' in general the charaoterittica of each of thCAC audience:. and thetypes of Iiatening. reading, and filmA which ordinuily attract them. Hitaludica, too, give him so me buia for predioting how anr given StOUp willrcepond to a given type of program, though he would Deed to verify prediction by a careful check on the eftecta which resulted from the particularaddreu in question. He aleo knOlU that the same mcuage conve yed bydifferent media. 10 reach the audience desired, would have to treu differentupecU of the .ubjec t which are especially appropriate for the medium inqUC&lion. I f the counteracting measures planned arc to be really remedial.he wou1d atrongly . uggeat lOme pre-ce.ting of the t e lpon leS which they actuaUy evoke. He ~ o u l propose. therefore, that any remedial measures shouldbe tried out in advance on a relatively .mall but typicalaampltl of thtl popula.


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8 Paul Feli:x Laz.anfddlegal an d adminooative regulation have appeared sullicien t to _ tl the Ueof mUi communication in the public iotereiL Ordinaril r. witdom in thatuse, it might appear, can be aJlowed to devdop by trial and erro r and therc.uhing nl lee of thumb. A criticlll . itualion, like that . uppoe;cd . adminedlythrow. inio hi gh relief considerations which. though alway. pre.enl, ordinarily Ke rn leas urgent. Hut crisis. a I the derivation of the word implies.forees judgment; and a desired IOlution of the cri,i , neceMi tates that judgment shall not be mill.ken. The critical t ituation of our fable, then, ratherthan exaggerating, perhaps only pull in to perspective the oonsequenca ofmistaken use of mue communicatio n and the help which reeearch can givein avoid 'g suw mi.ttDkcn uac,

Research of the kind described so far could well be called admin-istrative re: earch. It is carried through in the I Iervice of some kindof administrative agency of public or private character. Administrative research is subject to objectioTUI from two sides. On the one hand.t.here l i re the SpoUtKIrli themselves. so me of wh om feel thai theyhave not really got th eir money's worth. One good guess, so theargument goes, is of more practical importance than all the detailswhich might be brought to tight by an empirical study. There is,how ever, a fallacy behind this objection . Although speculation isindispensable for guidance in any kind of empirica l work, if honcstlycarried through it will u s u y Jead to a number of alternative conclusions which ca nnot all be true at the same lim e. Which one correspond s to the real si tuation can be decided only by empiricalstud ies. From anoth er side comes an objection directed agaiTUlt th eaims which prevail in the majority of current studies. They solve littleproblems, generally of II business character, w ~ th e lame method.could be used to improve the lHe of the community if only they wereapplied to forward.looking projects related to the pressing economicand social problema of our time. Robert S. Lynd, in hi s KnowledgeJor What has vigorously taken this point of yiew and bas sbownmany wa ys whereby research could he made more vital.

Nei ther of these two argumenUl doubUl that research can andshould he done at th e service of certain well-defined purposes. Butat thi s point a third argument co mes up. The objection is raised that

'There i r ther .u" etl.le w.y 10 o ._ m e the Iflumml of the fUilI t.,. of ta l pi rie .1 rell . ODe mllht, for illll'lI te, tell .ueb an opponent that _din 10 lIudietwhich have done people who mal . up ~ r mi .d. du. I. ' politica l cam ;..,10 bow 10 VOle Ife la llucnced by fe:rr dUfcrenl laclon tb .. th_ who h.Te more peI"'m.nenl politiul af6 li kI.... The opponent will find that Immediately unoentandable.nd will ... . th.1 he could ha.e come to th i. concliWon by 1IIln., fOOd co ,_ . __It to b.ppent that the oppeNite i. I'lle .nd that it i. pottible 10 ptUct 10 blp dOC '"the I'Ole of oril-inal ly ....decided people by mu.1l t of the __ eha.t.cteNllca .hichdeH:ribe people with .aUll pany alftli,liollL There are y othel' OlIlIIIplm bywh k h co , caD be led 10 conch,*O,.. wh ieb Ibm are proYed by ICtalda ta 10 be inc:olTi lC1..


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Administrative and Critical Communications Research 9O e cannot pursue a single purpose and study the means of its realization isolated from the total historical situation in which such planningand studying goes on. Modem media of communication have becomesuch co mplex instruments that whereve r they are use they do muchmore to people than those who administer them mean them to do,and they may have a momentum of their own which leaves the administrative agencies much less choice than they believe they have. Theidea of crilical research is posed against th e practice of administrative research, requiring that, prior and in addition to whatever specialpurpose is to be served, the ge neral role of our media of communicalion in the present soc ial system shou ld be studied. The rest of th eseremarks are devoted to a formulation of this conception and to asbo rt appraisal of ita possible co ntributions to current communicationresearch.

The idea of critical research has been developed in many studiesby Max Horkheimer. 1 ]t seems to be disti nguished from administrative research in two respects: it develops a th eory of the prevailingsocial trends of our times, general trends whi ch yet require consideration in any concrete research prob lem; and it seems to implyi of ba sic human values accurding to whi ch all actual (lr desiredeffects should be appraised.

As to prevail ing trends, everyone win agree that we live in aperiod of increasing centralization of ownership. Yet, although largeeco nomic organiza tions plan th ei r production to the minutest detail,the distribution of their productll is not planned systematica lly. Theireuccess depends upon th e outcome of a co mpetition among a fewlarge units which must rally sizeable proportions of the popalationas thei r customers. Thus promotion in every form becomes one ofthe main forces in contemporary society. The technique of manipulating large ma8Se l of people is developed in th e business worldand from th ere permeates our whole culture. In the end everything.be it good or bad, is promoted; we are living more an d more in anadvertising culture. This whole trend is aentuatoo still mo reby the fact that it has to disguise itself. A salesman who haa only oneHne to sell has to explain to each customer why this line sui ts justhis individual purposes . The radio announcer who serves one nationaladvertiser identifies himself to millions of listeners as your announcer.

Cf. e.pedally ' TraditiODaI and Critiu \ Theory ill the ril cArif' I r SoDd/oreA_ . VI (1937), pp. 245-295; Phi lotOph y and Cri tical Theory pp. 62S-631. Thee1t.mpl. uaed here ill . ' t DI the idea 01 eritic.1 .adal were tlkm fromtucHe o e y Dr . T. W. Adorno.


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Adminilltative and CriticaJ Com munications Research 13and scrutinized from the viewpoint of more or leu explicitideas of what endangers and what preserves the dignity, free-dom and eultural values of human beings.

d) Remedial possibilities, if any, are considered.Before we turn to the value which such an approach can havefor th e specific fie ld of communications research. it is first necessaryto meet an objection to the idea of .critica l research which may beraised against it on ita own ground. to wit, that 8 much of its effortis spent on what might be called showing up things, rather thanon factfinding or constructive lUggestions. It mu st be admittedthat being constructive is a rather relative concept, and that the ques

tion o what are relevant {acts cannot be decided only according toestablished procedures. he situation is somewhat similar to thewave of criticism which started with the reports of the Roya] Com.mission in the British Parliament and with the English soc ial Hteratureof the Di ckeru type in the first halI of the last century. Then. th e task.was to discover and to denounce the material cruelties of the newindustrial system : child labor, slu m conditions, and 10 on. Not thatall these horrors have now been eliminated. but at least there is enoughpublic c TUl io usoe88 of ll,c:m 80 th at whenever a student finds similarconditions. for inltance among migrant workers or sharecroppers,some steps toward improvement are taken. The trend of publicopinion and public administration is toward better social conditions.In cultural matters, a similar development has not yet taken place.The examples given above will be taken by many readers as ratherinsignificant in a ficld which is not of great practical importance.It might very well be, however, that we are aU so busy finding ourplace in society according to establisbed standards of success thatnothing is more important at this moment than to remind ourle-Ivesof basic cultural values which are violated, just as it was of decisivehistoric importance a bundred years ngn In remind the English mid-dle classes that th ey were overlooking the sacrifices which the newstra ta of industrial laborers underwent when the modern industrialworld was built. As Waller has pointed OUt,1 the moral standards oftomorrow are due to the extreme sensitiveness of a sma ll group ofintellec tual leaden of today. A few decades ago the artist whowo.e destined to be the c sic of the 5ul."Ct:t d ing generalion wasleft to sta.rve in hil own time. Today we are very eager not to overlook any growing talent, and we have fellowlhips and many otherinstitutions which try to al8ist the growth of any seed of artistic


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Adminwntive and Critica1 Communications Reaearch 15her of examples are available in the field of musical programs.1Serious music on the radio is not unconditionally accepted 8S good.The promotion of special conductors, which exaggerates the existingdifferences and detracts from auention to more important aspect ofmusic. is pointed to as another intrusion of an advertising mentalityinto an educational sphere. Tbe ceaselesa repetition of a comparatively small number of recognized 'master works" is derived fromthe necessity to keep public service programs more in line with commercial fare of the radio. From such an analysis concrete suggCA -tions evolve as to bow music programs on the radio should be conducted to make them reaUy serve a more widespread music appreciation. A discussion of the social significance and the probableeffect of popular music, to which almost 50 per cent of aU radio timeis g i v e ~ is also available and 80 far represent the most elaborateanalysis of a Iype of maD communication from the point of view ofcritical social research. ' Similar studies of printed maUer can hemade. For instance. wbat is the significance of the great vogue ofbiographies during the last decade? A study of their conten t showsthat they a ll talk in terms of sweeping laws of society, or mankind orthe human lOu l to which every individual is submitted and at thesame lime point up the ullique gramess and importance of the onehero they are treating The success of this kind of literature amongmiddle class readers is taken 81 an indication that many of themhave lost their bearings in regard to their social problems. Thesebiographies reflect a feeling that we are swept by waves of eventsover which the ordinary human being has no control and which call{or leadership by people with superhuman abilities. By such analysis anti-democratic implications arc carved out in a literary phe.nomenon which otherwise would not attract the attention of the socialac ien tist.

On the other end, upon studying the actual effects of communicationa. larger vista l are opened to IIOI1lCOl le whose observations areinfluenced by the critical attitude here discu.ssed. To give on ly oneexample : We praise the contribution which radio makes by enlarging80 greatly the world of each single individual, and undoubtedly thepraise is deserved. But is the maUer quite 80 simple? A farmermight be very well equipped to handle all the problems which his

'See T. W. Adonlo. 011 a Social Crilique of Rad io Mado," Oft file It Ihe OtIiee ofRadio R_e l I Col limbi. Unietlltr.See T. W. Adomo. Oil Popular Mnt.le," in lhi. _lie.

SlICh u au.iyw hat bee. urried throqb by L t.owmlbal of the lutiluI of ocialR_d lAd I. now ~ I I eIIleoded 10 the _ I l l btopl pbie. which uo eunattlr.ppearin In A_i lIlAIuine. with ...... cirelll.lIoll.


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remarks on administrative and critical communication research

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