Paul Lazarsfeld’s Legacy in Social Sciences: Empirical Foundations, Influence, and Contemporary Applications

In today’s information society, where content consumption is shaped by algorithms, and public opinion forms under conditions of networked fragmentation, the figure of Paul Lazarsfeld acquires renewed significance. This article aims to show how the key tenets of Lazarsfeld’s approach have been reinterpreted in contemporary scholarship and to delineate the limits and potential of classical models for analyzing digital communication.