Public Opinion
Public Opinion refers to the collective attitudes and beliefs of individuals on various issues, significantly influencing democratic processes and governance. This concept is rooted in the understanding that citizens form mental images or stereotypes that shape their perception of the world, often leading to imperfect decision-making. The notion, popularized in the early 20th century, suggests that many members of the public may lack sufficient information and attentiveness to effectively engage in complex political decisions. As a result, some theorists argue for a representative democracy where elected officials, equipped with deeper knowledge and expertise, make informed decisions on behalf of the public.
The media plays a critical role in shaping public opinion, yet it is often viewed as biased and incapable of providing a comprehensive understanding of events, leading to a distinction between news and truth. Additionally, concerns about the manipulation of public opinion through propaganda, especially highlighted in the context of World War I, raise questions about the authenticity of consent within democratic societies. Scholars continue to explore these themes, emphasizing the importance of structured dialogue and informed discussion to enhance the role of public opinion in governance. Overall, the study of public opinion remains relevant, addressing ongoing challenges in democratic engagement and communication.
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Public Opinion
Identification: A book about the role of public opinion in a democracy
Author: Walter Lippmann
Date: 1922
Written during a time of widespread disillusionment with government following World War I, Public Opinion was the first book to apply twentieth-century developments in fields such as philosophy and psychology to the question of how public opinion is shaped and what role it should play in democratic decision making.
In this book, Lippmann uses the concept of stereotypes, or mental images, to describe how individuals view the world around them, including the unseen world that exists outside their own immediate experience. Amplified across society, these stereotypes permit only an error-filled and imperfect basis for sound decision making. According to Lippmann, the public is composed of so many ill-informed, inattentive, and even neurotic citizens that it would be folly to place the decision-making process in their hands. He therefore urges that, in a democracy, the public cast their votes for individuals to represent them and then leave decision making entirely to these representatives, insiders whose knowledge goes beyond mere stereotypes.
In Lippmann’s view, the news media, which still consisted mainly of newspapers in 1922, is inherently biased and incapable of adequately informing public opinion. Drawing on his own experience as a journalist and wartime government functionary, he makes a sharp distinction between news and truth, comparing the news to a searchlight that gives the public an intermittent glimpse of this or that aspect of the environment but never a clear picture of the whole. He also expresses the fear that propaganda, having been used on an unprecedented scale in World War I, would be employed in the future to produce a manufactured, rather than enlightened, consent of the governed. To cope with these defects in existing institutions, Lippmann recommends that intelligence bureaus, staffed by qualified experts, be relied on to provide timely and factual information to all government departments and that a similar intelligence system be used throughout society as a check against the press.
Impact
Public Opinion can be considered the founding book in the field of communication studies, having pointed the way to later scholarship on such topics as agenda setting. Beyond that, its ideas became the subject of much discussion among intellectuals during the 1920s, especially when educator John Dewey weighed in with his more optimistic view that improved methods of public discussion could lead to a more salutary role for public opinion. While some of Lippmann’s views may now be considered naïve, his book became a classic by raising issues that will remain pertinent for as long as democracy itself exists.
Bibliography
Adams, Larry Lee. Walter Lippmann. Boston: Twayne, 1977.
Blum, D. Steven. Walter Lippmann: Cosmopolitanism in the Century of Total War. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1984.
García, César. “Walter Lippmann and George Santayana: A Shared Vision of Society and Public Opinion.” Journal of American Culture 29, no. 2 (June, 2006): 183–190.