James R. Beniger
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James Ralph Beniger (December 16, 1946
Morgen Witzel Morgen Witzel (born 1960) is a Canadian historian, business theorist, consultant, lecturer and author of management books, especially known from his work on "Doing business in China" and on "Managing in virtual organizations".Fineman, Stephen, Yiann ...
(2005) ''Encyclopedia of History of American Management.'' p. 30
– April 12, 2010) was an American
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
and sociologist and Professor of Communications and Sociology at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, particularly known for his early work on the history of quantitative graphics in statistics, and his later work on the technological and economic origins of the
information society An information society is a society where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation and integration of information is a significant activity. Its main drivers are information and communication technologies, which have resulted in rapid inf ...
.


Biography

Beniger was born in
Sheboygan, Wisconsin Sheboygan () is a city in and the county seat of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 49,929 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a populatio ...
, and received his BA in History from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1969, his MA in statistics and sociology from the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, where in 1978 he received his PhD in sociology. Beniger started his career in the early 1970s as staff writer for the ''
Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', taught history, English, creative writing, and sociology on colleges and universities and travelled all around the world visiting over 40 countries. In the 1980s he was appointed Professor of Communications and Sociology at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. in 1998-98 he served as president of the
American Association for Public Opinion Research The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) is a professional organization of more than 2,000 public opinion and survey research professionals in the United States and from around the world, with members from academia, media, gover ...
. Beniger died of
Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
in 2010 in
Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the m ...
at the age of 63.


Work


''Quantitative graphics in statistics,'' 1981

In the 1978 paper "Quantitative graphics in statistics: A brief history," Beniger & Robyn argued, that "quantitative graphics have been central to the development of science, and statistical graphics date from the earliest attempts to analyze data. Many familiar forms, including bivariate plots, statistical maps, bar charts, and coordinate paper, were used in the 18th century." In the development of statistical graphics over the centuries, according to Beniger & Robyn, innovators had to tackle four problems: * spatial organization, in the 17th and 18th centuries, * discrete comparison, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, * continuous distribution, in the 19th century, and * multivariate distribution and correlation, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beniger & Robyn conclude, that in their days "statistical graphics appear to be reemerging as an important analytic tool, with recent innovations exploiting computer graphics and related technologies." This was confirmed by W. H. Kruskall (1975), who specified:
The role of statistical graphics within statistics generally... has had tremendous ups and downs: at one time, graphical methods were near the core of statistics-Karl Pearson devoted considerable attention to graphics and he was following the emphasis of his hero, Francis Galton. Later on, statistical graphics became neglected and even scorned in comparison with the blossoming of the mathematical side of statistics. In recent years, however, there has been a renaissance of concern with graphics and some of our best statistical minds have suggested new graphical approaches of great interest.Kruskal, W. (1977), "Visions of Maps and Graphs," ''Proceedings of the International Symposium on Computer Assisted Cartography, Auto-Carto II,'' 1975, p. 31; as cited in Beniger & Robyn (1978, p. 6)


Developments in Statistical Graphics

The 1978 paper by Beniger & Robyn is complemented with an appendix on the developments in Statistical Graphics which starts with: ::c. 3800 B.C. Oldest known map (of Northern Mesopotamia) extant on clay tablet And ends with: ::1977 "Cartesian rectangle" to represent 2 x 2 table, experimentally tested against other forms Wainer and Mark Reiser, U.S. 7 :::Ad Hoc Committee on Statistical Graphics, American Statistical Association. This timeline is further developed into
Michael Friendly Michael Louis Friendly (born 1945) is an American-Canadian psychologist, Professor of Psychology at York University in Ontario, Canada, and director of its Statistical Consulting Service, especially known for his contributions to graphical metho ...
's "Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization" (2008).


Selected publications

* James R. Beniger. ''Interorganizational Response to Social Change: Professional Control of Drug Abuse by Youth in 2 Cities, 1972 - 1973.'' University Microfilms, 1980 * James Beniger. '' The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society,'' Harvard University Press, 1989/2009 Articles, a selection: * Beniger, James R., and Dorothy L. Robyn. "Quantitative graphics in statistics: A brief history." ''The American Statistician'' 32.1 (1978): 1-11. * Darley, John M., and James R. Beniger. "Diffusion of Energy‐Conserving Innovations." ''Journal of Social Issues'' 37.2 (1981): 150-171. * Beniger, James R. "Personalization of mass media and the growth of pseudo-community." ''Communication research'' (1987). * Beniger, James R. "Toward and old new paradigm: The half-century flirtation with mass society." Public Opinion Quarterly (1987): S46-S66. * Beniger, James R. "Communication—Embrace the subject, not the field." Journal of Communication 43.3 (1993): 18-25.


References


External links


James Beniger (1971)
at sociology.berkeley.edu {{DEFAULTSORT:Beniger, James R. 1946 births 2010 deaths American sociologists Information visualization experts People from Sheboygan, Wisconsin Harvard College alumni UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni University of Southern California faculty The Wall Street Journal people American male journalists Historians from New York (state) Historians from California Historians from Wisconsin