The rise of the term communication since the Rockefeller Seminar

Abstract

From 1939 to 1940, the Rockefeller Foundation promoted in the United States, the Rockefeller Foundation Communication Seminar, which brought together researchers once a month in order to discuss the direction of studies on communication. In the outbreaks of World War II, the seminar turned out to be a milestone in the history of the field of communication. This article seeks to examine a barely visible consequence of Rockefeller Seminar: the gradual replacement of the word propaganda in the media studies in the United States, substituted by the term communication. It was concluded that the activities of the seminar were decisive for the change in terminology, which, in turn, had epistemological impact in the field.