Dallas Walker Smythe
Dallas Walker Smythe (March 9, 1907 – September 6, 1992) was a political activist and researcher who contributed to a political economy of communications. He believed that research should be used to develop knowledge that could be applied to policies in support of public interest and the disenfranchised in the face of private capital. He focused his research on mass media and telecommunications. Some of his main ideas included the "invisible triangle" (broadcasters, advertisers and audience members), and the "audience commodity". Much of his effort was focused on differentiating between Administrative and Critical Communications research. Background and education Dallas Walker Smythe was born in 1907 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His father ran a hardware store in Regina, and his mother was a nurse from Caledonia. His parents married in 1906. His father was a Presbyterian, and his mother followed the Church of England. Religion was important in his early childhood. The family didn't follow any particular church, but often read the passages in the New Testament that discussed the ethical principles of Christianity, which held ideas of primitive socialism. As a child, he almost died of the flu, and subsequently his family moved to Pasadena, California, in search of a