Bernard Berelson

Bernard Reuben Berelson (1912–1979) was an American behavioral scientist, known for his work on communication and mass media.

He was a leading proponent of the broad idea of the "behavioral sciences", a field he saw as including areas such as public opinion. In Chapter 14 of Voting (1954), he enunciated what has become known as Berelson's paradox on democracy: while classical theories of its success assume voters committed to interest in public life, this fails to correspond with practical politics, while the system itself functions.

Berelson wrote a summary entitled The Great Debate on Cultural Democracy regarding the confrontation between mass society theorists and researchers for the media industries. Berelson asserted that the resolution of the debate was simple: just listen to mass communication researchers like himself as they develop useful answers to the issues raised by others.

Born in Spokane, Washington, he majored in English at Whitman College, graduating in 1934. He took a library science degree at the University of Washington in 1936 and an English master's there in 1937. Completing a doctoral degree in the Graduate Library School at the University of Chicago in 1941, under the influence of Douglas Waples, led him into the field of public opinion. In 1944, he began working in applied social research at Columbia University. Berenson returned to Chicago in 1946 and in 1952 became head of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences set up by the Ford Foundation at Stanford University. He moved back to Chicago in 1957 and then to Columbia in 1960.

Berelson was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1962. The same year, he joined the Population Council, eventually becoming its President.

...
Wikipedia