Personal Influence

Reports the results of a pioneering study conducted in Decatur, Illinois, validating Paul Lazarsfeld's serendipitous discovery that messages from the media may be further mediated by informal "opinion leaders" who intercept, interpret, and diffuse what they see and hear to the personal networks in which they are embedded.

First published in 1955, "Personal Influence" reports the results of a pioneering study conducted in Decatur, Illinois, validating Paul Lazarsfeld's serendipitous discovery that messages from the media may be further mediated by informal "opinion leaders" who intercept, interpret, and diffuse what they see and hear to the personal networks in which they are embedded. This classic volume set the stage for all subsequent studies of the interaction of mass media and interpersonal influence in the making of everyday decisions in public affairs, fashion, movie-going, and consumer behavior. The contextualizing essay in Part One dwells on the surprising relevance of primary groups to the flow of mass communication. Peter Simonson of the University of Pittsburgh has written that "Personal Influence was perhaps the most influential book in mass communication research of the postwar era, and it remains a signal text with historic significance and ongoing reverberations. . . more than any other single work, it solidified what came to be known as the dominant paradigm in the field, which later researchers were compelled either to cast off or build upon." In his introduction to this fiftieth-anniversary edition, Elihu Katz discusses the theory and methodology that underlie the Decatur study and evaluates the legacy of his coauthor and mentor, Paul F. Lazarsfeld.

Acknowledgments, Introduction to the Transaction Edition, Foreword, by Elmo Roper, PART ONE: THE PART PLAYED BY PEOPLE: A NEW FOCUS FOR THE STUDY OF MASS MEDIA EFFECTS, Section One: Images of the Mass Communications Process, I. Between Media and Mass, II. The Part Played by People, Section Two: Norms and Networks in the Process of Persuasion: Linking Small Group Research with Mass Media Research, III. An Essay in Convergence, IV. Norms and Small Groups: The Shared Character of Opinions and Attitudes, V. The Role of the Group in Influencing Change: Implications for Mass Media Research, VI. Interpersonal Networks: Communicating Within the Group, VII. The Group and the World Outside: Implications for Mass Media Research, PART TWO: THE FLOW OF EVERYDAY INFLUENCE IN A MIDWESTERN COMMUNITY, Section One: Locating Personal Influence, I. Criteria of Influence, II. A Technique of Confirmation, Section Two: The Impact of Personal Influence, III. The Place of Impact Analysis in the Study of Influence, IV. Searching for and Assessing the Impact of Various Influences, V. Evaluating the Impact of Various Influences, VI. The Role and Sequence of Various Influences, VII. Some Further Technical Problems, VIII. Variations in Impact, Section Three: The Flow of Personal Influence, IX. On Describing the Flow of Influence, X. Marketing Leaders, XI. Fashion Leaders, XII. Public Affairs Leaders, XIII. Movie Leaders, XIV. The Two-Step Flow of Communication, XV. A Summary of Influences and Influentials, Section Four: Technical Appendices and Commentaries on fhe Research, Appendix A. Choice of the City, Appendix B. A Guide to the Questionnaire, Appendix C. On Follow-up Interviewing and Analysis, Appendix D. On the Construction of Indices (Including a Substantive Addendum on an Index of Popular-Fiction Consumption), Bibliography, Index