“Mapping the New Mental World Created by Radio": Media Messages, Cultural Politics, and Cantril and Allport's The Psychology of Radio

During the 1930s a number of interesting critiques of science and society emerged in the social sciences in general, and in psychology in particular. One example of this trend is The Psychology of Radio (1935), authored by Harvard psychologist Gordon Allport and his former student Hadley Cantril. The book, which was intended for both professional and lay audiences, sought to open discussion on the effects of the pervasive presence of radio, and to throw into relief the political, cultural, and economic contexts in which this new form of mass communication was embedded.This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Pandora, K. (1998). “Mapping the New Mental World Created by Radio": Media Messages, Cultural Politics, and Cantril and Allport's The Psychology of Radio. Journal of Social Issues, 54(1), 7–27, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1998.tb01206.x. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.Ye