The Institute’s first contract research was propaganda-effectiveness work for the US state.

Evidence

Another project was negotiated by Leo Lowenthal, who had remained in the USA and had been director of the Research Department of the Voice of America since 1949. In collaboration with Lazarsfeld’s Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University, the Institute examined the difference between the effectiveness of the German broadcasts of the Voice of America, the BBC World Service, and eastern European stations (Radio Moscow and East German stations). The radio research projectthe first pure contract research in the history of the Institute of Social Researchwas conducted by using experts to interview listeners. The results were poor. They did not make the Voice of America any the wiser. But to that extent they gave no trouble to the conscience of a Critical Theorist. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 466

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to later debates over Critical Theory’s institutional entanglement with Cold War state and intelligence agencies.
• DEFINE: Marks the moment contract research first enters the Institute’s research repertoire.