Page 66 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

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HERBERT
GANS,
GALTUNG, JOHAN (1930- ) is the founding father of peace studies as an
academic discipline. His formal education is in mathematics and sociology. In
1959, he founded and directed the International Peace Research Institute. In
1969, he left the institute formally and became a professor at the University of
Oslo. This academic career spans major international universities, including the
University of Hawaii and the University Witten-Herdecke, Germany.
For his prestigious work, he received an alternative Nobel Peace Prize for an
essay. He returned to social sciences in 1974 as director-general of the Inter-
University Centre and president of the World Future Studies. He also was project
coordinator for the United Nations.
His most recent book, Global Glasnost: Toward a New World Information
and Communication Order, examines how economics and information manage-
ment affect the Third World, particularly through international governmental
agencies such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Or-
ganization (UNESCO). He also analyzes journalism's contribution to cover war
and peace stories as part of the international political dialogue.

SOURCE: The International Who's Who, 1995-1996.
Jacqueline Nash Gifford

GANS, HERBERT (1927- ) is a sociologist with a strong interest in analyzing
and describing gatekeeping. Gans was born in Germany and came to the United
States in 1940. He has advanced degrees from the University of Chicago and
the University of Pennsylvania. During his career, he has worked in many re-
search capacities, including urban and city planning research, and as a professor
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University. He also has
been a consultant for many governmental agencies and private philanthropy
organizations.
Gans is the author of The Uses of Television and Their Educational Impli-
cations and Deciding What's News. Perhaps his most important contribution is
his analysis on the press' cultural bias, which influences news decision making.
Specifically, Gans identified several perspectives, which he called "enduring
values." Two of those values were ethnocentrism and individualism. He argues
that themes such as these constantly appear in the news for two reasons—
because journalists respect them as part of their professional values and because
journalists share those values with their audience's cultures. Gans' work gives
a credible nod to recognizing the power of the press to persuade society, even
when attempting to be objective.

SOURCES: Ann Evory, ed., Contemporary Authors, Vol. 6, 1982; Wemer J. Severin
and James W. Tankard, Jr., Communication Theories: Origins, Methods and Uses in the
Mass Media, fourth edition, 1997; Who's Who in America, 1992-1993.
Jacqueline Nash Gifford