Book Reviews : People, Society, and Mass Communications. Edited by LEWIS ANTHONY DEXTER and DAVID MANNING WHITE. (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1964. Pp. xii, 595. $7.95.)
| Author | Edward C. Dreyer |
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296401700428 |
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
815
those
who
are
theoretically
oriented.
The
end
product
is
a
useful,
valuable
synthesis
that
relates
theoretical
and
applied
interests
to
the
study
of
public
administration.
San
Diego
State
College
EDWARD
C.
DREYER
People,
Society,
and
Mass
Communications.
Edited
by
LEWIS
ANTHONY
DEXTER
and
DAVID
MANNING
WHITE.
(New
York:
The
Free
Press
of
Glencoe,
1964.
Pp. xii, 595.
$7.95.)
In
the
past
few
years
communications
research
seems
to
have
experienced
a
sudden
renaissance.
This
is
probably
a
result,
at
least
in
part,
of
Bernard
Berelson’s
controversial
article,
&dquo;The
State
of
Communications
Research,&dquo;
which
many
re-
garded
as
a
virtual
obituary
for
the
field.
As
one
of
the
authors
of
this
volume
points
out:
&dquo;It
may
well
be
that
Berelson’s
unhappiness
about
the
present
state
of
mass
communications
arose
out
of
the
fact
that
he
was ...
still
trying
to
interpret
new
experimental
and
empirical
findings
in
terms
of
the
expectations
derived
from
an
earlier
theoretical
framework.&dquo;
The
intellectual
ferment
that
Berelson
appears
to
have
generated
seems
to
have
had
the
most
visible
impact
at
the
theoretical
level
rather
than
in
terms
of
new
empirical
findings.
It
is
because
of
this
re-thinking
about
communications
research
that
White
and
Dexter
have
sought
to
bring
&dquo;together
studies
and
analyses
from
several
different
disciplines&dquo;
that
would
&dquo;be
useful
as
a
review
and
as
a
stimulus
to
research.&dquo;
There
are
at
least
two
important
features
that
commend
this
book.
First,
it
is
a
rare
event
when
a
book
of
readings
is
organized
to
develop
a
particular
theoretical
point
of
view.
In
this
book
stress
is
given
to
the
&dquo;social
process
approach&dquo;
as
a
method
for
understanding
mass
communications.
Briefly,
the
social
process
approach
argues
that
&dquo;mass
communications
takes
place
between
persons
who
are
members
of
specific
social
groups.&dquo;
What
is
communicated,
received,
and
interpreted
&dquo;can
best
be
understood
in
terms
of
the
group
membership
and
institutional
and
inter-
personal
expectations
of
those
originating,
exposed
to,
or
receiving
messages
from
the
mass
media.&dquo;
This
is
an
approach
that
differs
fundamentally
from
the
mainstream
of
earlier
communication
research
which
concerned
itself
essentially
with
the
study
of
mass
persuasion
or
&dquo;the
relative
power
of
various
kinds
of
communications
to
change
opinions,
attitudes,
and
actions
in
the
very
short
run.&dquo;
As
Dexter
and
White
point
out
in
their
own
articles
this
overly
simple
framework
was
found
to
be
short
on
find-
ings
and,
perhaps
even
more
important,
overlooked
more
subtle
features
of
influences
associated
with
communications
exposure.
Hence
in
their
organization
and
their
selection
of
relevant
studies,
Dexter
and
White
have
been
guided
by
a
functional
approach
to
the
media.
With
this
model
&dquo;the
primary
question
is
not
’What
do
the
media
do
to
people?’
but,
’What
do
people
do
with
the
media?’
&dquo;
The
second
notable
feature
of
the
book
is
its
value
for
those
interested
in
the
attitudinal
and
behavioral
implications
of
political
communication.
The
recent
out-
put
of
political
studies
employing
various
&dquo;communications
models&dquo;
(some
of
the
most
recent
include
Deutsch,
The
Nerves
of
Government,
Milbrath,
The
Washing-
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