Effects of Mass Communication, The

In 1960, Joseph Klapper wrote The Effects of Mass Communication in which he outlined the “phenomenistic approach” to media studies. Klapper explains the approach by stating “it [the phenomenistic approach] is in essence a shift away from the tendency to regard mass communication as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects, toward a view of the media as influences, working amid other influences, in a total situation” (p. 5). Further developments in the phenomenistic approach eventually led to audience-centered media approaches, such as the uses-andgratifications approach, a term which Klapper coined in 1963.

Klapper provides an extensive review of early political and persuasive communication literature, often citing classic works such as Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet's The People's Choice (1948), Katz and Lazarsfeld's Personal Influence (1956), ...