2011/08/11 by Glenda R. Balas, Glenda R Balas
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Media Studies and Communication #Music History and Culture #Social and Cultural Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.7275/democratic-communique.253
openalex publication_date 2011/08/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
This article draws from archival documents to examine Paul Lazarsfeld's participation in the 1949 Allerton Seminar, a vision-crafting conference sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation for scholars and leaders in "noncommercial, educational broadcasting."The author argues that clear linkages exist between Lazarsfeld's perspective on nonprofit media and a progressive vision of U.S. public service broadcasting.The purpose of this article is to recover some of Lazarsfeld's contributions to this concept of public media and to suggest that he sought a broad cultural project for noncommercial television that was underpinned by qualitative research, worries about class bias and class interest, and a commitment to diverse and overlapping voices.