Personal Influence Conference
Re-Reading Personal Influence: Retrospects and Prospects 50 Years Later
50 years ago, Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld published the seminal work, Personal Influence: The part played by people in the flow of mass communications, at the Bureau for Applied Social Research (BASR). Personal Influence will be reissued this year by Transaction Publishers. ISERP and the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania are sponsoring a conference entitled Re-Reading Personal Influence: Retrospects and Prospects 50 Years Later to honor the reissuing of this book. Three interdisciplinary panels will unpack relevant historical contexts of 1940s and 1950s, chart the book’s influence on thinking and research afterward, and extend Katz and Lazarsfeld’s ideas into contemporary discussions of politics, social networks, and influence.
The conference was held at the Italian Academy at Columbia University on 21. October 2005.
8:30 a.m.
Coffee
9:00-9:30 a.m.
Welcome and introduction
Peter Bearman, Director, ISERP, Columbia University
Michael Delli Carpini, Dean, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
9:30-11:00 a.m.
Historical Contexts for Personal Influence
Jefferson Pooley, Muhlenberg College
Paddy Scannell, Westminster University
John Summers, Harvard University
Susan Douglas, University of Michigan
Lawrence Glickman, University of South Carolina
11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Personal Influence and Political Life
Kurt and Gladys Lang, University of Washington
John Summers, York University
W. Lance Bennett, University of Washington
Diana Mutz, University of Pennsylvania
Michael Schudson, University of California, San Diego
1:00 p.m.
Lunch
2:30-4:00 p.m.
Personal Influence and Political Life
Charles Kadushin, Brandeis University
Robert Hornik, Annenberg School of Communication
Duncan Watts, Columbia University
Diana Crane-Herve, University of Pennsylvania
John Durham Peters, University of Iowa
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Remarks by Elihu Katz and moderated concluding discussion
