Psychology of Radio, the

The Psychology of Radio (1935) paints a comprehensive portrait of the early days of radio. At the core of the book there is a series of experiments exploring the possibilities of this then-new medium. In Cantril and Allport's opinion, it is the task of social psychology to deliver empirical knowledge to the prospective users—including program sellers, publicity managers, and educationalists—on how to shape their messages appropriately. The authors combine this explicit orientation toward the interests of practitioners with an academic interest in the role of the radio in society. Their speculative reasoning gives an early example of social utopia associated with a new medium: Cantril [Page 666]and Allport ascribe to the radio the potential to vitalize political life, to promote social integration, to enlarge the ...