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i DOCUMENT RESUME ED 040 600 EM 008 224 AUTHOR Katz, Elihu; And Others TITLE Studies of Innovation and of Communication to the Public. Studies in the Utilization of Behavioral Science, Volume II. INSTITUTION Stanford Univ., Calif. Inst. for Communication Research. SPONS AGENCY Ford Foundation, New York, N.Y. PUB DATE 62 NOTE 275p. EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$1.25 HC-$13.85 DESCRIPTORS *Communication (Thought Transfer), *Diffusion, *Information Dissemination, *Innovation ABSTRACT The papers presented in this volume report studies on the process of innovation and studies on the process and problems of communicating scientific information to the public. Papers include: "The Social Itinerary of Technical Change: Two Studies on the Diffusion of Innovation" by Elihu Katz; "The Communication of Ideals on Innovation in Agriculture" by E.A. Wilkening; "Characteristics of Agricultural Innovators and Other Adopter Categories" by Everett M. Rogers; "An Ordinal Scale for Measuring the Adoption Process" by Robert Mason; "Shannon's Information Theory: The Spread of an Idea" by Randall L. Dahling; "Innovation of Participation in a Management" by Thomas W. Harrell; "Experimental Studies of Communicative Effectiveness" by Jum Nunnally; ',Mass Media Censorship and the Portrayal of Mental Illness: Some Effects of Industry-Wide Controls in Motion Pictures and Television" by George Gerbner and Percy H. Tannenbaum; "A Scientific Convention as Source of Popular Information" by Glynn L. Wood; "Two Studies on the Communication of Scientific Information" by Norman McKown; and "Science and the Public Mind" by Wilbur Schramm. (SP) 3 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION IN WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECES- SARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY. Notes Pagination may appear incorrect due to deletion of blank pages. P ° .11 e-'% 171 C ;. '!7. '7' Q., 01 o ..".. n 't\T'1,'"C 11 1.r" L 11. ix ii. A.'"3 JY1.l.t,_Al. .LL ILI .L Elihu KatzJuni Nunnally E. A. WilkeningGeorge Gerblier Everett M. RogersPercy H. Tannenbaum Robert MasonGlynn L. Wood Randall L. Dahling Norman :k.lcY,<:own Thomas W. HarrellWilbur Schramm STUDIES IN THE UTIL,IZATr.ON OF TIEP;AVIORALsoni."1-,-CE, Volume it Institute for Communicai-ion Rosca,:eh, Start.'ord Stanford, California, 1932 (-6 Studies of Innovation and of Communication to the Public Studies of Innovation and of Communicationtothe Public Elihu KatzJuin Nunnally E. A. WilkeningGeorge Cerbner Everett M. RogersPercy H. Tannenbaum Robert MasonGlynn L. Wood Randall L. DahlingNorman McKown Thomas W. HarrellWilbur Schramm STUDIES IN THE UTILIZATION OF BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE, Volume II Institute for Communication Research, Stanford University Stanford, California, 1962 Institute for Communication Research Stanford University Stanford, California 4 0 1962 by the Institute for Communication Research All rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-18231 Printed in the United States of America ti T., T TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword by Wilbur Schramm I.STUDIES OF INNOVATION ELIHU KATZ -- The Social Itinerary of Technical Change: 3 Two Studies on the Diffusion of Innovation E. A. WILKENING -- The Communication of Ideas on Innovation 37 in Agriculture EVERETT M. ROGERS -- Characteristics of Agricultural Innovators 61 and Other Adopter Categories ROBERT MASON -- An Ordinal Scale for Measuring the Adoption 99 Process RANDALL L. DAHLING -- Shannon's Information Theory: 117 The Spread of an Idea THOMAS W. HARRELL (with the assistance of Robert F. Pietrowski) 141 Innovation of Participation in a Management STUDIES OF COMMUNICATION TO THE PUBLIC JUM NUNNALLY =-- -Experimental Studies of Communicative 175 Effectiveness GEORGE GERBNER and PERCY H. TANNENBAUM -- Mass Media 203 Censorship and the Portrayal of Mental Illness: Some Effects of Industry-Wide Controls in Motion Pictures and Television GLYNN L. WOOD -- A Scientific Convention as Source of Popular 227 Information NORMAN McKOWN -- Two Studies on the Communication of Scientific 245 Information WILBUR, SCHRA.MM -- Science and the Public Mind 261 1 4.. -...... Ja. .. ft" , FOREWORD This is the second volume of incidental papers produced during the study made by the Institute for Communication Research of the problems of bringing behavioral science research into use. The study was financed by the Ford Foun- dation. The first volume in this series, published in 1961, contained a number of case studies by well-known behavioral scientists and users of behavioral science. There will be at least one more volume after this one, containing some studies of a behavioral science research organization, one or more theoretical articles on the topic of utilization, and some early studies on attempts to map the various fields of applied behavioral science. The present volume reports some studies done at Stanford, and some papers and studies commissioned elsewhere. The papers fall into two broad groups, one on the process of innovation, the other on the process and problems of communicating scientific information to the public. The opening paper, by Prof. Elihu Katz, of the University of Chicago, contrasts two studies of innovation. One treats the process by which hybrid-corn seed gained acceptance among farmers in two Iowa communities; the other, the process by which a new "miracle" drug came to be accepted by physicians in four communities. Both studies were designed with sociological variables in s mind, and the similarity of their findings gives strong support to a number of empirical generalizations concerning the innovation process. Following Professor Katz's paper are three studies of agricultural inno- vation.Professor Wilkening, of Wisconsin, sums up much of the thinking of scholars on agricultural innovation. Professor Rogers, of Ohio State, studies the characteristics of farmers who can be identified as innovators, or as early or late adopters. Professor Mason, of Oregon State, applies Guttman scaling to field studies of agricultural innovation, and finds that the stages in the adop- tion process are sometimes as postulated by rural sociologists, sometimes not, the difference apparently arising from differences in the products under adoption. Mr. Dahling's paper is an attempt to map the lines of adoption of Shannon's mathematical theory of information, by the ingenious device of studying the foot- notes in articles using the theory and published during the first eight years after Shannon's 1948 article. The final paper in the first section of the book, by Professor Harrell, is a field study of a large corporation's attempt to introduce a new management practice. The innovation met with considerable success, and the amount of change in supervisory personnel was a reflection of the encouragement they got from their superiors. , ...ay. Law I2 The first two papers in the second group of studies grew out of the large Illinois study of the problems of communicating information on mental health and mental illness to the public. Many of the results of this study have been reported in Professor Nunnally's book, Popular Conceptions of Mental Health. Professor Nunnally's paper in the present volume reports some of the results of his experi- mental studies on this topic, including challenging postulates on when it may be better not to correct erroneous public beliefs. The paper by Professors Gerbner and Tannenbaum represents part of a study of the reasons why the mass media carry what they do on mental health and illness. Mr. Wood's paper reports a study of the newspaper coverage of an Amer- ican Psychological Association convention, attempting to get at the reasons why reporters covered, and newspapers printed, what they chose to cover and report from the more than 400 papers and panels delivered at the meeting. Professor McKown's two papers are reports of experimental studies on aspects of the communication or Science to large audiences. The final paper in the book, which makes a start at mapping the distribu- tion of science knowledge in the American public, is based on an intensive study of one community made by the Stanford Institute for Communication Research, and some national surveys by the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan. Wilbur Schramm Institute for Communication Research March, 1962 viii STUDIES OF INNOVATION egn ,.. ,,, -aL:Z*1 ,.. THE SOCIAL ITINERARY OFTECHNICAL CHANGE: Two Studies on the Diffusionof Innovation ELIHU KATZ Dr. Katz is associate professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, and co-author with Paul Lazarsfeld ofthe book PERSONAL INFLUENCE.This paper, originally written for the present project, was published insubstantially the same form in HUMAN ORGANIZATION (20, 2, Summer,1961). "a 1 ^ f- ' J....L. rnrrn " 441. CA.1...M 4.4 : 1.46... 'THE SOCIAL ITINERARY OF TECHNICAL CHANGE: TWO STUDIES ON THE DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION by Elihu Katz (1) Rapid social and technical change is the hallmark of modern,urban society. The last few years, for example, have seenan upturn in the birth rate; an invasion of small, foreign-made automobiles; the triumph of the hula hoop; the rise and fall of the sack dress; the widespread acceptance of anti- biotics and tranquilizers; and so on.Despite all of this, there are surprisingly few studies of the diffusion of innovation in the sense of tracing the movement of:1) a given new practice; 2) over time; 3) through specific channels of communication; 4) within a social structure. This is all the more remarkable given that one would be hard put even to define various fields of behavioral research without reference to the process of diffusion.Marketing, for example, obviously, has to do with the diffusion of products; anthropology has to do with the transmission and change of culture; sociology is concerned, among other things, with the consequences of technical change, or with the spread of fads and fashions.Yet, these traditions have tended to ignore the itinerary of change in the sense in which the diffusionprocess is defined above.