Radio Research Project
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The Radio Research Project was a social research project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation to look into the effects of mass media on society.[1]
In 1937, the Rockefeller Foundation started funding research to find the effects of new forms of mass media on society, especially radio. Several universities joined up and a headquarters was formed at the
- A particularly influential program of effects research was pursued in the Office of Radio Research (ORR) established by the Rockefeller Foundation under the auspices of Princeton University. Managed by Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian émigré psychologist, the program was overseen by Hadley Cantril, Princeton psychologist, and Frank Stanton, director of research at CBS. The program was designed by Cantril and Stanton to determine why people listened to radio. Stanton, a psychological researcher who soon became CBS president, was naturally interested in what lured people to programs and to what extent a program and its ads boosted sales of products.[2]
Among the subjects of the Project's first studies were soap operas, known as radio dramas at the time. Herta Herzog, Austrian Psychologist, authored an article on this research, titled "What Do We Really Know About Daytime Serial Listeners?" It is considered a pioneering work of the uses-and-gratifications approach and the use of psychology research methods in media studies.[citation needed] Herta Herzog was formerly the Associate Director of the Office of Radio Research where she worked on consulting studies. [3]
The Radio Project also conducted research on the
A third research project was that of listening habits. Because of this, a new method was developed to survey an audience – this was dubbed the Little Annie Project. The official name was the Stanton-Lazarsfeld Program Analyzer. This allowed one not only to find out if a listener liked the performance, but how they felt at any individual moment, through a dial which they would turn to express their preference (positive or negative). This has since become an essential tool in focus group research.
References
- ^ La musa venal. Producción y consumo de la cultura industrial
- ISBN 0-521-47022-6.
- ^ LAZARSFELD & Stanton, 1943, RADIO RESEARCH https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Ratings-Documents/Radio-Research-1942-1943.pdf
- ^ Pooley, J. & Socolow, M.J. (2013, October 28). The myth of the War of the Worlds panic. Slate. https://slate.com/culture/2013/10/orson-welles-war-of-the-worlds-panic-myth-the-infamous-radio-broadcast-did-not-cause-a-nationwide-hysteria.html