Melvin Defleur

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Like many scholars in the communication field, Melvin Lawrence DeFleur began his academic career in a related social science. Born on April 27, 1923 in Portland, Oregon, he received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Washington in 1954. His thesis, Experimental Studies of Stimulus Response Relationships in Leaflet Communication, drew from sociology, psychology, and of course, communication, to study how information diffused through American communities.

DeFleur has witnessed a period of unprecedented proliferation of technology and media outlets, progression in research methodology, and an increased awareness on the effects of media on society and individuals within a society. His early work owes a debt to Stuart C. Dodd and George A. Lundberg, sociologists and psychologists. This group applied the designs of quantitative measure, statistical data analyses, and descriptive mathematical models used in the physical sciences to the development of sociology (DeFleur & Larsen, 1987).

Though the Project Revere experience influenced DeFleur, another force affected his work. He began his career at a time where the memories of World War II were fresh in everyone's mind. He emerged into the academic world at a point in history where the Cold War played a critical role in shaping the United States' political, economic and social atmosphere. Social psychology research added to the knowledge that the United States government and military felt they needed for operating in a new world dynamic (East v. West). For example, the leafleting processes studied by Project Revere were an obvious way to communicate information to a displaced, captive, or isolated population. That knowledge would be vital in the event of a nuclear exchange between the emergent superpowers of the United States and the U.S.S.R.

DeFleur maintained a sociological focus during the early 1970s, going on to co-write an introductory sociology textbook that went into several editions. He co-authored a study of sexual discrimination in university hiring practices, particularly in sociology departments (Wolfe et al, 1973), again with a strong inclination toward statistics and survey methods. However, DeFleur's focus shifted as times and technology changed. As television spread widely across the United States, he began to branch into the functions and purposes of mass media. Specifically, he researched such topics as the effect of television on children's knowledge of occupational roles, as well as on what influences the content and output of the American broadcasting systems. DeFleur and others established a formal definition of social expectations theory, applied to a model to predict that watching television attunes a viewer to social organization patterns of various groups, even if they "have never been members or never will be" (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989). Other works examined the potential relationships forged by mass media between the perception of social problems and their portrayal by the media (Hubbard et al, 1975). DeFleur wrote of his suggestion of a cultural norms theory in 1970, an idea that, in his estimation, "provided the foundation for the more comprehensive social expectations theory" (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989).

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he continued with studies on news diffusion. He reviewed some major studies of diffusion (DeFleur, 1988) and extracted generalizations to summarize the theories of diffusion up to that point. Among them, he found that despite emerging technology, word of mouth is still important and major events that concern a broader population will travel further and faster.

DeFleur cites his idea (formed with Timothy Plax) of the language-shaping function of the media as one of four theories on how media shape messages, and what that means for social conduct (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989). The other three are the meaning-construction function of the press (Lippmann, 1920s); cultivation theory (Gerbner); the agenda setting function of the press (Shaw and McCombs).

If one considers the recency of communication as an independent discipline, DeFleur's transition from "pure" social psychology to mass communication mirrors the growth of this field. DeFleur's theories, individual and collaborative, are widely cited in mass communication studies and in general theoretical surveys. He has conducted his research using theories and methods from other social sciences, such as psychology and sociology.

Several of DeFleur's major works are general enough to classify as surveys of the mass communication field, yet specific in that they are selective and instructive in explaining theoretical concepts. An overarching theme of his research seems to be an eye towards practical application.

He has taught at Indiana University (1954-1963), the University of Kentucky (1963-1967), Washington State University (1967-1976), the University of New Mexico (1976-1980), the University of Miami (1981-1985), Syracuse University (1987-1994) and the University of Washington before taking his current position as professor of communication at Boston University's Department of Mass Communication, Advertising and Public Relations. In addition, DeFleur studied as a Fulbright Professor to Argentina twice: these experiences explain past affiliations with the Argentine Sociological Society and the Ibero-Interamerican Sociological Society, for which he served as Secretary General.

DeFleur is on the Executive Board of the Center for Global Media Studies at Washington State University, an organization whose motto, "Global Media Cover the World ... We Cover Global Media," connects with the focus of his recent work studying the accuracy of audience recall of news media in a cross-cultural vein (Faccoro & DeFleur, 1993). As he progressed from social-psychological experimentation at a local level, to his analysis of the impact of television on children, to international mass media effects, he has generated an impressive body of research that has affected the focus and process of communication studies.

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography of DeFleur's Works [Abridged]

DeFleur, M. L. (1983). Social Problems in American Society. Prentice Hall.
DeFleur, M. L. (1987). The growth and decline of research on the diffusion of the news: 1945-1985. Communication Research, 14(1),109-130.
DeFleur, M. L. (1988). Diffusing information. Society, 2, 72-81.
DeFleur, M. L. & Ball-Rokeach, S. (1989). Theories of mass communication (5th ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman.
DeFleur, M. L. & Cronin, M. M. (1991). Completeness and accuracy of recall in the diffusion of the news from a newspaper vs a television source. Sociological Inquiry, 61(2), 148-166.
DeFleur, M. L. & Dennis, E. (1998). Understanding mass communication. (6th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
DeFleur, M. L. et al. (1992). Audience recall of news stories presented by newspaper, computer, television and radio. Journalism Quarterly, 69: 1010-1022.
DeFleur, M. L., Kearney, P. & Plax, T. G. (1993). Mastering communication in contemporary America: Theory, research, and practice. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.
DeFleur, M. L., Kearney, P. & Plax, T. G. (1997). Fundamentals of Human Communication. (2nd ed.). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.
DeFleur, M. L. & Larsen, O. N. (1987). The flow of communication. (2nd ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, Inc. (Original work published 1958).
DeFleur, M. L. & Plax, T. G. (1980). Human Communication as a Bio-Social Process. Paper presented to the International Communication Association, Acapulco, Mexico.
DeFleur, M. L. & Westie, F. (December 1958) Verbal attitudes and overt acts: An experiment on the salience of attitudes. American Sociological Review, 12 (6).
Faccoro, L. B. & DeFleur, M. L. (1993). A cross-cultural experiment on how well audiences remember news stories from newspaper, computer, television, and radio sources. Journalism Quarterly, 70, 585-601.
Hawkins, R. P. et al. Advancing communication science- Merging mass and interpersonal processes. Sociological Inquiry, 60, 434-437.
Hubbard, J. C., DeFleur, M. L. & DeFleur, L. B. (1975). Mass media influences on public conceptions of social problems. Social Problems, 23(1), 22-34.
Lowery, S. A. & DeFleur, M. L. (1995). Milestones in mass communication research: Media effects. (3rd edition). White Plains, NY: Longman.
Wolfe, J. C., DeFleur, M. L. & Slocum, W. L. (1973). Sex discrimination in hiring practices of graduate sociology departments: Myths and realities. American Sociologist, 8(4), 159-164.