Bio: (1926-2021) American sociologist. Elihu Katz got his Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University. He was the professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and a visiting professor at the University of Southern California, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago. He also worked at the Bureau for Applied Social Research and was scientific director of the Guttman Institute of Applied Social Research in Israel.

Katz and his mentor, Paul Lazarsfeld, coauthored a book, Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications (1955). In this book, the authors present the results of research they conducted together, focusing on the intersection of mass and interpersonal communication. They concluded that different people have different levels of information on political issues and that voting behavior is greatly influenced by social contacts. The ability and willingness to accept the message sent by the media are influenced by many factors: personal education and ideological commitment, as well as the emotional strength, form, and language of the message itself. Even more than radio or the press, voting behavior is influenced by "opinion leaders", people who have a great influence on people close to them, because they, in their environment, are the ones who share the most information and opinions about politics. 

In his later years, Katz focused on television, both as a research topic and in helping Israel introduce broadcast television.

Main works

The People’s Choice (1944);

Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communication (1955)

Medical Innovation: A Diffusion Study (1966);

Bureaucracy and the Public: A Reader in Official-Client Relations (1973);

The Uses of Mass Communication: Current Perspectives on Gratifications Research (1974);

Social Research on Broadcasting: Proposals for Further Development (1977);

Broadcasting in the Third World: Promise and Performance (1977);

The Export of Meaning: Cross-Cultural Readings of Dallas (1990);

Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History (1992);

The Jewishness of Israelis: Responses to the Guttman Report (1997);

Negotiating Jerusalem (2000);

Echoes of Gabriel Tarde: What We Know Better or Different 100 Years Later (2014).