The Founding Mothers of Communication Research: Toward a History of a Gendered Assemblage

Rowland, Allison L.; Simonson, Peter

doi:10.1080/15295036.2013.849355

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…This is followed by Merton's explanation of his involvement with focus groups at the behest of Paul Lazarsfeld and his subsequent methodological and conceptual innovations in this area. We question the idea that Merton is the "father of the focus group" by highlighting Herta Herzog's i role in the development of this approach ii (Rowland and Simonson 2014). These narratives provide us with a shared understanding of what exactly a "focussed interview" iii entailed before it was transformed into a "focus group".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…As we have started to document, Herta Herzog was more than just a minor contributor to the development of individual focused interviews and their group variant. She was a "founding mother" of communication studies and "Madison Avenue legend" (Rowland and Simonson 2014). Herzog had been involved with Lazarsfeld vi since her Ph.D. research in the early 1930s, studying audience reactions to radio presenter voices and she knew Merton who worked for the Bureau of Applied Social Research at the same time as her (Perse 1996).…”

Section: Robert Merton and The Focused Interviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ii This is Rowland and Simonson's (2014) argument. We supplement it by connecting Herzog with "order of merit" research and by linking "gratifications" theory to both focus groups and motivation research more generally.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

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Focus groups: history, epistemology and non-individualistic consumer research

Tadajewski

2015

Consumption Markets & Culture

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This paper provides an overview of the development and application of focus groups. It rethinks the conventional history associated with this approach in at least four ways. We reinsert a forgotten pioneer of focus groups, Herta Herzog, into our narrative. Secondly, we trace the emergence of group based research to the work of applied psychologists in the early twentieth century and argue that the conditions of possibility for the uptake of this method were contingent on the asking of "why" questions. We follow the thread of "why" questions from the applied psychologists through to motivation research and the promotion of focus groups by Herzog to practitioners. Exploring the literature on motivation research unearths a further novel contribution: we excavate the use of "interpretative focus groups" by this community of practice. In addition, our close reading of motivation research and focus groups permits us to problematise the distinctions made by Calder (1977). We subsequently trace the uptake of this methodology in the tobacco industry as a means of making an epistemological and political argument for the greater use of focus groups. Initially, we do so by charting the rise of social constructionism and non-individualistic consumer research. This enables us to navigate the highways and byways of discursive psychology, interpretive research, Consumer Culture Theory and on to feminist and Critical Marketing Studies. The engagement with focus groups with respect to the latter traditions is woefully underdeveloped. Our political argument is that focus group methodology can speak to the interests of many constituents in marketing theory and practice. It is not wedded to any specific social or political agenda. This means its potential contribution to the study of consumption, markets and culture is multi-faceted.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Robert Merton and The Focused Interviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Focus groups: history, epistemology and non-individualistic consumer research

Tadajewski

2015

Consumption Markets & Culture

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“…No entanto, existe um claro déficit: sempre que se pesquisa carreiras acadêmicas (inclusive as do período entre guerras), o foco se fixa nas carreiras bem sucedidas, das quais o melhor exemplo é a do emigrante Paul Felix Lazarsfeld . A pesquisa feita nas margens dos estudos de comunicação, não menos daquelas concernentes às pesquisadoras do sexo feminino, é muito difícil de fazer (Rowland;Simonson, 2013) e, por isso, ainda é muito fraca. A história da corrente principal também é sempre uma história de supressões.…”

Section: Parecerunclassified

Da ciência do periódico à “ciência da liderança nacional-socialista”: como os estudos de imprensa adotaram o regime nazista na Alemanha¹.

Averbeck-Lietz¹

2017

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O artigo apresenta ao leitor alguns aspectos da história das ciências da comunicação na Alemanha, das origens até os anos 1960. Sublinhando as preocupações da atual geração em reavaliar seu passado, três momentos são analisados. Dominante no período que precedeu a ascensão do nazismo, o primeiro se caracteriza pelo desenvolvimento de uma abordagem empírica e interdisciplinar. O segundo revela o modo como o campo se submeteu ao novo regime e com ele colaborou, interrompendo sua atividade científica. O terceiro corresponde à situação do pós-Guerra e se caracteriza pelas tentativas de modernizar a área, adotando os conceitos e métodos de pesquisa originados dos Estados Unidos. A conclusão dá sinal de que o ciclo de reavaliação do passado está, agora, em vias de encerramento nas ciências da comunicação da Alemanha.

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“…The international history of women in communication research has yet to be written, but we have pieces of the broader story. We know that in the United States before the 1950s, there were dozens and perhaps scores of women who conducted media research at Columbia University and elsewhere, though they rarely received the credit they deserved (Ashcraft and Simonson, 2016; Rowland and Simonson, 2014;Dorsten, 2012 and. Herta Herzog is the most famous figure in this group, whose transnational journey from Austria to the U.S. and back saw her do the bulk of her work in non-university, commercial contexts (Klaus and Seethaler, 2016;ver también Fleck, 2021).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%