Page 136 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

125
ROPER, ELMO
advice columns that dealt with women's social roles. While she emphasized the
importance of women's traditional responsibilities, she encouraged women to
involve themselves in a world outside the home and promoted the Democratic
Party.

SOURCE: Maurine H. Beasley, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Media: A Public Quest for
Self-Fulfillment, 1987.
Maurine H Beasley

ROOSEVELT, FRANKLIN D. (1882-1945) was probably the most effective
political communicator ever to occupy the White House. He presided at a time
of great national crisis, first from the depression and then from World War II.
His policies were often controversial, but he prevailed and was reelected three
times.
Two things stand out in his communication efforts. One was that he held
more press conferences than any other president—a total of 998 during the
slightly more than 12 years he was in office. That's more than the total for all
his successors in the White House. It was one reason he had good relations with
the reporters, despite the fact that the majority of newspapers opposed him
editorially. Despite the frequency of press conferences, they almost always
yielded real news.
The other thing was his "fireside chats"—his radio talks to the American
public. Few have had a better radio voice than Roosevelt, and few, if any,
presidents have offered more substance in their radio talks to the public. He
used the relatively new medium of radio to great advantage. (See also FDR and
Radio; Louis Henry Howe.)
SOURCE: James E. Pollard, The Presidents and the Press, 1947.
Guido H. Stempel HI

ROPER, ELMO (1900-1971) was one of the major pioneers in polling. He
was educated at the University of Minnesota and the University of Edinburgh.
Upon leaving college, he went into sales and management and developed a
penchant for measuring consumer tastes and preferences, using forecasting and
survey sampling techniques. Unlike others, he used scientific techniques for
polling. Because of his uncanny ability for accuracy, he was approached to write
a public opinion column for Fortune magazine, a position he held for 15 years.
In 1933, he established Roper Research Associates. Roper was one of those who
correctly predicted Franklin D. Roosevelt's victory in the 1936 presidential race.
The Literary Digest, which had correctly predicted the outcome in five previous
presidential elections, incorrectly predicted Alfred Landon would win.
Roper was best known for the work he did for the Television Information
Office beginning in 1959. Those polls concluded that "most Americans get most