John Stuart Western (16 March 1931 – 6 January 2011) was an Australian academic and author. He received his B.A. and M.A. and his Diploma of Social Studies from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

, and his Ph.D from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1959. In 1966, along with Colin A. Hughes, he published a study of Australia's first televised policy speech on 12 November 1963, by then prime minister

Sir Robert Menzies ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

.Hughes, C.A. & Western, J.S. (1966). Bookcover & p.1 At this time, Western was a lecturer in Psychology at the Australian National University. Their study comprised 250 voters who viewed the policy speech, examined the effect of this form of political communication, and traced its impact on the knowledge, attitudes, and opinions of this group. This was the first such detailed study undertaken in Australia, providing a testing of theories of cognitive equilibrium in relation to voting behaviour, and an examination of television's use in political communication. Western moved to the University of Queensland in 1966 and was appointed Professor of Sociology at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

in 1970. He was elected a Fellow of the

Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) is an independent, non-governmental organisation devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the social sciences. It has its origins in the Social Science Research Council of Austr ...

in 1984. He specialised in the sociology of mass communication, class and inequality, and the professions in Australia. He also served as a Commissioner on the Queensland Criminal Justice Commission from 1990 until 1994. Western had two sons, Mark and

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

, both of whom are sociologists.

Bibliography

* * *

References

External links

Biography - University of Queensland
1931 births Australian non-fiction writers 2011 deaths Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia {{Australia-sociologist-stub