Responsive Chord, the

This classic book in the mass communication literature has been widely cited by both scholars and practitioners because it uses a communication principle called resonance to outline both a theoretical and a practical approach to creating electronic media messages. The author contends “presearch” is critical to creating a persuasive radio or television message that will “use the audience as a workforce” by evoking a response from each listener's or viewer's personal experiences and background. Published in 1973, this was the first book written by Tony Schwartz, the man who created the famous “Daisy Girl” spot for Lyndon B. Johnson's presidential election.

Schwartz believes many people using the electronic media to persuade or inform do not really understand how it works. He explains why transportation theories of communication that track the linear information flow of a message from sender to receiver are outdated and do not fully account for or explain the effects of complex messages delivered through the electronic media. Schwartz contends that for such sound and picture [Page 715]messages to be successful, they must “strike a responsive chord.” Such a “chord” is “struck” when a sound or visual image in a message is designed and controlled with the goal of evoking a desired response from the receiver's stored past experiences.

Schwartz was among the first to view the communication process in electronic media as interactive. He calls this interactive process the “resonance principle,” whereby a radio listener or television viewer actually brings more information to the communication process than the sender or the stimulus itself. The listener's or viewer's brain is an important component of the communication process because his or her life experiences interact with the stimulus in determining the meaning of the message. Schwartz challenges communicators to deeply understand how controlled stimuli in their visual and aural messages can evoke stored information and result in a desired learning or behavioral effect.

If the first 25 pages of the book outline the resonance principle, the next 85 guide practitioners on how to use resonance to make effective messages for radio and television. In his section on designing a commercial, Schwartz argues that the audience should be viewed as “a work force in the communication process,” filling in spaces of familiar phrases such as “things go better with _____.” He contends the radio audience is not just listening, it is “bathing” in the sounds it hears.

Schwartz's chapter on political messages applies his strategy to campaign and candidate communication. Instead of creating political spots and then testing them with an audience, Schwartz believes in “presearch.” He urges campaign managers to first find out how an audience feels about a candidate because, Schwartz writes, “it is much more important for a voter to feel a candidate than to see him.” Thus, the goal of a political spot producer is to find a way to “bring the voter to the candidate,” by evoking positive feelings about him or her with appropriate sound and picture stimuli that strike a responsive chord in the audience.