International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

When Everett M. Rogers passed away on October 21, 2004, his ashes were returned to the family's Pinehurst Farm in Carroll, Iowa, where he was born on March 6, 1931. In a career spanning 47 years, he wrote 36 books, some 325 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and over 100 research reports. His prolific writing and clear prose have left an indelible mark on our understanding of the role that communication plays in social change (→  Planned Social Change through Communication ). Everett Rogers attended Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, which had a great intellectual tradition in agriculture and in rural sociology. Numerous agricultural innovations were generated by scientists at Iowa State. Rural sociologists – including George Beal (who served as Ev's doctoral advisor) – were conducting pioneering studies on the diffusion of these innovations, such as hybrid seed corn and chemical fertilizers (→  Diffusion of Information and Innovation ; Rural Development ). Questions were being asked about why some farmers adopted these innovations, and some didn't. These questions intrigued Rogers. Such questions about innovation diffusion, including the causes of strong resistances and how communication could help overcome them, formed the core of Rogers's graduate work at Iowa State University. His 1957 doctoral dissertation analyzed the diffusion of a cluster of agricultural ... log in or subscribe to read full text