Politics, Social Networks, and the History of Mass Communications Research: Rereading Personal Influence

Since its publication in 1955,Elihu Katz and Paul Lazarsfeld's Personal Influence has been one of the most influential and widely cited works in media and communications research. In this volume, leading scholars from three generations revisit this classic and controversial text. They reveal its repressed contexts; its unintentional consequences; and its continued relevance for understanding media, consumption, citizenship, and networks of interpersonal influence today. As a whole, the volume brings contemporary thinking and state-of-the-art research into new conversation with the problematics and personalities that dominated the field during a key period of its development. In a masterful Afterword, Katz responds to his critics, contextualizers, and those who find things praiseworthy in his classic work.