The authors have made a statistical construction of the "average" Latin American country. Factor analysis produced three central indices—Size, Developmental Level, and Exports to the United States—which account for considerable differences between nations. Similarities in certain of the 16 basic factors, such as literacy, are also pointed out. Paul Deutschmann, who died unexpectedly last year, was Professor at Michigan State University, and one of the finest and most cordially liked younger scholars in the field of journalism and communications research. Professor McNelly is at Michigan State, following an extended period of research in Latin America.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
* The following study was made possible through a grant to the writers by the Ford Foundation-International Programs of Michigan State University and through Programa Inter-Americano de Informacion Popular, a cooperative project of the Interamerican Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the Organization of American States and the American International Association, with headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Institute is an organism established by the Governments of the American Republics and the Association is a philanthropic and technical aid organization, founded by Mr. Nelson A. Rockefeller and his brothers. 1 Please refer to: Daniel Lerner, "Communications System and Social Systems: Statistical Exploration in History and Policy," Behavioral Science, 2 (October 1957), pp. 266-275 and The Passing of Traditional Society, Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1958; David C. McClelland, The Achieving Society: D. Van Nostrand, Princeton, N.J., 1961; Jack P. Gibbs and Walter T. Martin, "Urbaniaztion, Technology, and the Division of Labor: International Patterns," The American Sociological Review, 27 (October 1962), pp. 667-677.
2.
In choosing sources we sought breadth of coverage and relative currency. The sources and data obtained from them are indicated in the footnote to Table 1. Of these, Almanaque Mundial has the virtue of completeness. The data gathered by Jones and his associates came from a comprehensive survey in which the best statistics available in each country were provided by local collaborators and compiled into the report on rural youth. William Benton utilized the resources of the Encyclopedia Britannica in assembling his data, which are also available in the recent Year Book of that publication.
3.
Another aspect is that the square of the correlation coefficient can be used to describe the amount of variance—or variation—in one index, using the other as predictor. For example, if A and B are correlated .50, we may say that A "accounts for" 25 percent of the variation in B. If the correlation were .80, the amount of variation "accounted for" would be 64 percent.
4.
McQuitty, L.L."Elementary Linkage Analysis for Isolating, Orthogonal and Oblique Types and Typal Relevancies."Educational and Psychological Measurement, 17 (1957), pp. 207-229.
