{"id":228,"date":"2023-01-02T17:04:16","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T17:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/315.jcdelama.info\/?page_id=228"},"modified":"2023-01-03T16:04:54","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T16:04:54","slug":"public-opinion","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/315.jcdelama.info\/?page_id=228","title":{"rendered":"Public Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Public Opinion<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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At this stage of the course, after having studied the essence of political power, what actually makes power, it should already be clear why we need to study the phenomenon of public opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Plato to Machiavelli, there seems to be an agreement that political power always rests on opinion. And this axiom applies, as Hume stated, for democratic and liberal regimes, as well as for the most tyrannical systems humanity has witnessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The battle for political power is the battle for the public opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political communication mostly studies the strategies used by political actors to be successful in this battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand how political communication works, we must explore the not always clear relationship between the \u201cpublic\u201d opinion and the \u201cpublished\u201d opinion, between the popular feelings about significant issues and the dominant opinion articulated and reproduced by the mass media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can the \u201cpublished\u201d opinion determine the \u201cpublic\u201d opinion? Do the opinions that appear in the media directly and inevitably influence the opinion of the people who are exposed to those messages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what would be the implications for the political game?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public opinion appears to be the only legitimate source of political power (at least in democratic societies, there should be no doubt about it). If mass media can determine public opinion, how the publics feels about current issues, we should conclude that they are also in control of the political power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a matter of fact, mass media is the main channel used by political actors and institutions to develop their strategies and achieve their goals. It is in the media presence where the candidate spent the most important part of the money they raise. This is also the reason why political campaigns are so incredibly expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This learning unit starts defining what public opinion is. We will discuss the social function as well it fulfills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will focus on two authors who are considered classics in public opinion research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first one, Walter Lippmann, was a very influential journalist and political advisor. His book \u201cPublic Opinion\u201d, first published in 1922, is prophetic. It anticipates the most important findings and theories produced by mass communication researchers in the 20th<\/sup> Century. In this book, Lippmann studies the triangular relationship between mass media, public opinion and political power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will finish the section on public opinion with Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. Her celebrated hypothesis of the spiral of silence is the most successful attempt to explain the dynamics of public opinion, how public opinion arises and changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public Opinion Defined<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Public opinion could be defined as <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dynamic and tacit agreement that determines the ethical and aesthetic values in every society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This simple definition helps us introduce the essence of the socialpsychological phenomenon we are studying. In the course of the lecture, we will round up the definition with important nuances and elements.<\/p>\n\n\n