Harold Dwight Lasswell (February 13, 1902 – December 18, 1978) was an American political scientist and communications theorist. He was a professor of law at Yale University. He served as president of the American Political Science Association, American Society of International Law, and World Academy of Art and Science.
According to a biographical memorial written by Gabriel Almond at the time of Lasswell's death, and published by the National Academies of Sciences in 1987, Lasswell "ranked among the half dozen creative innovators in the social sciences in the twentieth century." At the time, Almond asserted that "few would question that he was the most original and productive political scientist of his time."
Biography
Early life
Lasswell was born on February 13, 1902, in Donnellson, Illinois, to a clergyman and a school teacher. An older brother died in childhood.
Teaching career
From 1922 to 1938,
Lasswell taught law and political science at Yale University from 1946 to 1970. From 1970 to 1972, he served as a professor of law at the City University of New York's John Jay College. From 1972 to 1976, he served as a distinguished professor at Temple University School of Law, where he retired from teaching.
Lasswell served as president of the American Political Science Association in 1956 and president of the American Society of International Law from 1966 to 1968. He was also involved in the Association for the Advancement of Science, Commission on the Freedom of the Press, Committee for Economic Development, and Rand Corporation. Lasswell has been described as a "one-man university" whose "competence in, and contributions to, anthropology, communications, economics, law, philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and sociology are enough to make him a political scientist in the model of classical Greece."
Lasswell is considered to be a founding father of political psychology and policy sciences and an early proponent of mass communication as a field of scholarly research. He believed universities should become focal centers for the study of communications.
His five-questions model of communication is considered one of the earliest and most influential models of communication. Many consider him the founder of content analysis, having conducted one of the most comprehensive content analysis studies of his time.
Propaganda
At the age of 25, Lasswell completed his doctoral dissertation on Propaganda Technique in the World War. In his dissertation, Lasswell noted that propaganda is unavoidable and democracies must adjust to it, rather than fight it.
His study of political and wartime propaganda represented an important early type of communication study. Propaganda analysis has been absorbed into the general body of communication research, though the word propaganda later gained a negative connotation. and its uses in World War II. In 1935, Lasswell published World Politics and Personal Insecurity, a study of international relations using quantitative content analysis. The study included direct observation of the aggressive behavior of welfare clients toward public relief administrators.
His works on political psychology include Psychopathology and Politics, World Politics and Personal Insecurity, and Power and Personality.
Model of communication
alt=model of communication|thumb|350x350px|Lasswell's model of communication
His five-questions model of communication, which focuses on "who (says) what (to) whom (in) what channel (with) what effect," led to the emphasis in communication study on determining effects. First published in Lasswell's 1948 book, The Structure and Function of Communication in Society, the model aims to organize the "scientific study of the process of communication." and its lack of relevance due to its linear orientation. Other scholars object to its lack of a feedback loop, The seven stages have been criticized for their construct as a policy cycle or a linear process. He also identified eight "goal values" of policy: wealth, power, respect, rectitude, skill, well being, enlightenment, and affection.
Publications
Some of Lasswell's publications include:
Books
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