Public opinion - Definition and Overview

For the book by Walter Lippmann, see Public Opinion.

Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population.

Jürgen Habermas, a German, contributed the idea of "Public Sphere" to the discussion of public opinion. Public Sphere, as he argued, is where “something approaching public opinion can be formed”(2004, p.351). It is featured as universal access, rational debate, and disregard for rank. However, these three features for how public opinion SHOULD be formed are not in place in western democracy. Public opinion is highly susceptible to elite manipulation.

Public opinion can be influenced by public relations and the political media. Additionally, mass media utilizes a wide variety of advertising techniques to get their message out and change the minds of people. Disturbingly enough, not all people realize propaganda when they see it.

"Public perceptions, under the influence of extensive, deceptive, and one-sided publicity, can become disconnected from reality. For example, Alabama has had a pronounced cooling trend since 1935. Nevertheless, a poll among professionals in Alabama found that about 95 percent of the participants believed that the climate had been warming over the past fifty years and that the warming was due to the greenhouse effect." [1] (http://www.carleton.ca/~tpatters/teaching/climatechange/lindzen/lindzen4.html)

The tide of public opinion becomes more and more crucial during political elections, most importantly elections determining the national executive.

It is frequently measured using the method of survey sampling.

See also

• Mass media and public opinion

Example Usage of opinion