A 30-Year Assessment of the Media Planning Literature

Abstract

An investigation of media planning articles published from 1962 to 1991 indicated a steady increase, over the years, in the relative number of communication scholars contributing to this literature, although media planning practitioners have continued to make contributions in notable numbers. The eight-year run of the Journal of Media Planning appears to have had a positive effect on the literature. Media modeling and methodological concerns were found to be the major foci of media planning researchers in the early years; more recently the variety of topics investigated by these researchers has increased. A citation analysis undertaken on a subsample of the articles revealed that most-cited authors of recent years represent a generational shift. Specifically, there has been a shift from developing models and explaining media content to examining media planners' usage patters of various models.