Lerner's study of Balgat Turkey played a critical role in shaping American ideas about the use of mass media and US cultural products to promote economic and social development in post-colonial nations.
Scholars have argued that the research project that formed the basis of the book emerged from intelligence requirements in the US government, and was a result of the contract between the Office of International Broadcasting and Columbia University.
Lerner obtained his doctorate from New York University in 1948, submitting a dissertation about the conduct of psychological warfare against Germany during the time between D-Day and VE-Day, which was published as Sykewar (1949).
Here we shall need to consult the intelligence specialists (the social scientists) and the communication specialist (the propagandist) - rather than or in addition to the diplomat, the economist and the soldier"[2]Lerner's involvement in the Bureau of Applied Social Research project that Traditional Society[3] was based on has been criticized to be violating ethical considerations of research.
Samarajiva writes that even though the original purpose of research had been said to be about empathy and media participation, many of the questions in the survey had to do with foreign radio broadcast and sentiments regarding US, UK and USSR.