Voicing Social Concern: The Mass Media, Violence, Pornography, Censorship, Organization, Social Science, the Ultramultiversity

This book records efforts to utilize public speaking to analyze serious social, educational, and scientific issues and to inform a variety of publics of their importance. Drawing from research, Otto Larsen responds to the broader challenge of linking research outcomes to possible policies and actions in four general areas: mass media effects and controls, problems of performance in professional organizations, efforts to gain scientific legitimacy for social and behavioral science, and the enhancement of teaching and learning in universities. This volume records the content of thirty-three talks given over a forty-year period from 1952 to 1993.
Contents: Preface. COMMUNICATION. Trying to be Effective, Vying to be Successful; Comic Books and Creative Leisure; From the Flow of Information to the Adoption of Innovation; How Good are the Polls? VIOLENCE. Dialogue on Media Violence; Violence May be Hazardous to Your Health; What is the Question? OBSCENITY AND PORNOGRAPHY. Predispositions on Pornography; The Anatomy of Pornography; Should Pornography Laws be Repealed? Effects as a Factor in a No Win Game; How Far Can We Go? CENSORSHIP. Censors as Censors; Prurience, Offensiveness, Social Value; Are Sex and Violence Identical Twins? SOCIOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION. The Year Sociology Stood Still; How Far from Providence? Counsel to Council on Planning; The Year the Annual Meeting Stood Still; Mid-Life Crises Control. SOCIAL SCIENCE. Mapping Human Relations; Turtles and the National Science Board; Innovation and Productivity; High Above Cayuga's Waters; Pain from Knowledge Gain in Social Science; An Overview of the Underdog; Terrible Parable on Politics of Science; The Future of Social Science; Through a Rear View Mirror. THE ULTRAMULTIVERSITY. Professorial Gamesmanship; The Ongoing Pursuit of Knowledge. THREE MEMORABLE MENTORS. The Foundations of George Lundberg; The Dimensions of Stuart C. Dodd; The Footprints of Tad Blalock; Afterword; A Grand View of Social Science; Name Index; Subject Index.