Wilbur Schramm and the “Four Founders” History Of U.S. Communication Research

Abstract

In its postwar institutional infancy, American mass communication research badly needed a history. Communication study in the United States, jerry-rigged from journalism schools and speech departments in the years following World War II, has from the beginning suffered from a legitimacy deficit. This talk traces Wilbur Schramm’s self-conscious and successful effort to supply such a history in the form of an origin myth, complete with four putative founders.

Artificial Intelligence

“…In some respect, this "canonical narrative" is similar to the received "standard" history of media and communication research according to which Wilbur Schramm, Harold Lasswell, Kurt Lewin, Paul Lazarsfeld, and Carl Hovland were the "founding fathers" of this field (Rogers 1994;Schramm 1997). Recently, new approaches to disciplinary history exposed the strategic functions of this form of storytelling which is common to many young disciplines establishing their legitimacy and tracing their boundaries (Pooley 2018). In line with the work of Ekbia and otherswho emphasized the communication phenomena that are central to the field of AIand the development of critical approaches to the history of media and communication, this chapter recasts the development of AI into the history of media and communication.…”

The Dark Green Book That Transformed a Field: Reflections on the Legacy of Kline and Tichenor

“…While initially directed at a heinous Nazi enemy, the research subsequently showcased more questionable political biases, all of which took on new importance during the Cold War (Simpson, 1994). Schramm, the field’s putative founder, was a fervent “Cold Warrior” who received a number of contracts from the State Department and CIA (Pooley, 2018). He also reflected the gender biases of his time by referring to the “quantitative research men” (p. 99), an accurate statement about the institutional prejudices of mid-century academia.…”