John Stuart Western AM FASSA (16 March 1931 – 6 January 2011[1]) was an Australian academic and author.
[2] In 1966, along with Colin A. Hughes, he published a study of Australia's first televised policy speech on 12 November 1963, by then prime minister Sir Robert Menzies.
Their study comprised 250 voters who viewed the policy speech, examined the effect of this form of political communication, and traced its impact on the knowledge, attitudes, and opinions of this group.
This was the first such detailed study undertaken in Australia, providing a testing of theories of cognitive equilibrium in relation to voting behaviour, and an examination of television's use in political communication.
He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours for "service to education in the area of sociology as an academic, researcher and author".