The essential guide to how media shape our lives. By the creator of the most talked about political ad in television history.
Tony Schwartz drew on his unparalleled experience in the communications industry to give us The Responsive Chord, an engaging read and one of the seminal books on media. Schwartz came to understand that most advertisers, politicians, and educators in fact, most all of us use a model of communication long outmoded by the coming of electronic media. A model which has made us blind to many of the inner workings of modern communication. In The Responsive Chord, he puts forth the resonance principle--that the meaning of an ad (or any other piece of communication) is not present in the ad itself but rather in how the ad relates to the vast array of knowledge and associations already held in the mind of the viewer both factual and emotional. Thus, audience members do not merely digest a message; they are an essential force in creating it. Schwartz guides us through the many fascinating consequences. The implications for anyone looking to impart a message or influence decisions are enormous.
With so many people now getting their information through social media and "fake news" sites, it is crucial that we understand the strong forces by which these outlets act upon us and, yes, manipulate our ideas and actions. The Responsive Chord reveals these forces in a captivating and eye-opening read.
"I read The Responsive Chord as a freshman in college and it affected everything I've ever made since. Its message is practical and deep. I'd recommend it to anyone."
Ira Glass, Creator & Host of NPR's This American Life
"Tony Schwartz was a genius in his understanding of the communications revolution of the 20th century. My interview with him was one of my favorites and one of the most important of my own long career in broadcast journalism."
Bill Moyers, Journalist, Political Commentator and White House Press Secretary
"Tony Schwartz was not only an original theorist but a master persuader whose must-read book is brimming with indispensable insight about how humans construct meaning through media."
Prof. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center
"Here's the still-true story about how a media environment can shape our thoughts, our purchases and, yes, our votes. It's not just the content that influences us; if only it were that simple. No, it's the media themselves, the political economy driving them, and the atomizing impact of their targeted messaging. Maybe reading this book will prepare us to think more critically about the way social media is used on, and against us today."
Douglas Rushkoff, author, Program or Be Programmed, Present Shock, and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus
"The Responsive Chord had a profound impact on me when I first read it as a teenager, and it sparked a lifelong interest in the impact of media and technology in education. Re-reading it today, Tony Schwartz's observations about education in a media-saturated environment are deeply prescient and more relevant than ever."
Luyen Chou, Chief Product Officer, Pearson Education
"I keep talking to Tony, learning from Tony, practically every day. Radio and audio are Tony's World. We just live in it."
Christopher Lydon, Radio Host of The Connection and Open Source, former New York Times Journalist
Author Biography:
Tony Schwartz (1923-2008) was a media theorist, audio documentarian and advertising creator. Considered a guru of the newly emerging "electronic media" by Marshall McLuhan, Schwartz ushered in a new age of media study in the 1970's. His works anticipated the end of the print-based media age, and pointed to a new electronic age of mass media. Known as the "wizard of sound," he is perhaps best known for creating the most talked about political commercial in television history: the "Daisy" ad for the 1964 Lyndon Johnson campaign.
Schwartz began recording sounds of New York City - street sounds, musicians and conversations - releasing over a dozen albums on Folkways Records and Columbia Records. One of his albums, New York Taxi Driver, was among the first 100 recordings inducted into the U.S. National Recording Registry. From 1945 to 1976, Schwartz produced and hosted "Around New York" on WNYC.
He transitioned into advertising work in 1958 when approached by Johnson and Johnson about creating ads for their baby powder, because of his reputation for recording children. His resulting work is often credited as the first use of children's real voices in radio commercials (previously children had been portrayed by specially trained adults).
Briefly specializing in advertising using children, he soon broadened into general advertising, creating ads for such clients as Coca Cola, American Airlines, Chrysler, American Cancer Society, and Kodak.
Schwartz subsequently shifted his advertising work toward political campaigns. While continuing to create product ads, he created thousands of political ads for such candidates as Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
In a final transition in his career, he turned his energies toward public interest advertising for social causes. Early in his career he had created the first anti-smoking commercials for television and radio. In the 1980s he resumed these efforts, creating many anti-smoking commercials, as well as media work for such causes as fire prevention, AIDS awareness, educational funding and nuclear disarmament.
In 2007, Schwartz's entire body of work, including field recordings and commercials, was acquired by the Library of Congress. John Carey is Professor of Communications and Media Management at Fordham University. John Carey brings 25 years of experience in media-industry research and product development to his teaching at the Gabelli School of Business. His clients have included Google, American Express, AT&T, NBC Universal, The New York Times, Primedia, A&E Television Networks, Digitas, The Online Publishers Association, PBS, Cablevision, Rainbow Media, Scholastic and XM Satellite Radio, among others.
Professor Carey has served on the advisory boards of the Adult Literacy Media Alliance, the Annenberg School For Communications and Fordham's Donald McGannon Communication Research Center. He was a commissioner on the Annenberg Commission on the Press and Democracy, has been an invited lecturer in more than a dozen countries and has presented his research to the boards of major media companies in the United States. Before coming to Fordham, he taught at Columbia Business School and at New York University. He resides in New York City.
