Balroop Grewal Dr.

Snyder JRN 350 July 22, 2012

PUBLIC OPINION
What is Public Opinion? Why does it matter to anyone, especially today when individual freedoms and individual thought is championed? Public Opinion is defined from a few different perspectives, including public policy, commerce, and sociology. It is defined in general as a Noun: Views prevalent among the general public, and as the collective opinion of many people on some issue, problem, etc. Also, as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views. Historically, Public Opinion is most associated with and studied in terms of politics and political systems, and especially Democratic political systems. Most theorists and historians agree the concept of Public Opinion, as understood and measured today, cannot exist in an autocratic or totalitarian state. However, even as far back as the time of Babylon and Assyria, there exist historical references to popular attitudes, and legends of aristocrats disguising themselves as commoners in order to listen to peoples opinions of their governance. The modern day concept of public opinion, the methods and tools to measure it, really began to develop in the 18th century and evolved throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Although, as far back as Ancient Greece, there is some attention devoted to understanding what the publics beliefs and attitudes are. It is important to remind that in the time of Plato and Aristotle, the public considered here is limited to an elite class, certainly excluding slaves and peasants, and almost al-

ways women (there are some exceptions for elite class women in Greek and Roman societies ). Plato, one of the most well known and studied western philosophers, for his part, did not value Public Opinion too highly. Plato believed that politics and political order were far too important to leave up to Public Opinion. He said that in most cases the public or the general population lacked the foresight necessary for governance and that it almost always only gained its collective knowledge post factum, from disasters recorded in history. Aristotle, Platos star pupil, came to believe the opposite. He believed in the wisdom of citizens and thought that all public institutions should take the opinions, values and tastes of the public into account. Even the idea of trying to influence or shape the opinions of select as well as general publics has roots in pre-18th century history. In Ancient Israel, prophets and learned men would often give public lectures or sermons, sometimes justifying or informing of specific government policies, sometimes trying to rouse people to oppose the rulers or government. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century further led to more and more of the general public having access to education and knowledge. The modern concept of propaganda, which today connotes negatively as purposeful manipulation, was created by the Catholic Church to propagate the faith in 1622. At the same time, the proliferation of things like news services and regularly printed newspapers available to the general public began to create a need for the governing classes to care about what the public knew and understood and how they felt about it. In the later half of the 18th century, with the rise of revolutions, such as the French Revolution and the Revolutionary war in the 13 American British Colonies, truly showed the enormous power Public opinion can have when concentrated and directed. After

the major revolutions, the rise of democracies, urbanization in the western world made it more and more important what people thought about a variety of topics, from social values to public policies. Philosophers of the era placed further importance on Public Opinion; like Jean Jacques Rousseau who advocated placing more governing power in the hands of the public, thought that the State should be based on the general will. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the general publics role has grown, in governance, in setting societal norms for the majority; combined with the exploding rate of literacy and access to education and knowledge across the globe, but especially in the west, has led to a much more fully developed study of public opinion, rational ways to measure it, and how best to shape and influence it. Jeremy Bentham, a utilitarian philosopher in England, is credited with the most fully developed theory of Public Opinion by mid 19th century. He argued that Public Opinion should be a sanction and that it has the power to keep societies in equilibrium by choosing rulers that would rule for the greatest good of the greatest number. Ferdinand Tonnies, a German sociologist, thought that Public Opinion has the equivalent function in societies as religion does in communities. Another German theorist, Jurgen Habermas contributed the concept of the Public Sphere in 1962. Habermas explained that the Public Sphere (or bourgeois public) features universal access, rational debate, and a disregard for rank. Widely considered the very first Public Relations professional, Edward Bernays was the nephew of famous psychologist Sigmund Freud. He combined his uncles psychoanalytical ideas with other psychological concepts such as crowd psychology, and his own understanding of business to develop public persuasion campaigns. His efforts even helped to popularize his uncle Freuds theories. Bernays believed that the Public could not be trusted to make the

right choices, whether political or commercial, without guidance from above. He developed a scientific technique of opinion molding (which is still used today by PR and Marketing industries), and called it engineering of consent. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, social theorists, philosophers, political scientists, economists and public relations pioneers have expanded the perspectives from which public opinion is studied. Studying, measuring and tracking Public Opinion is no longer useful in just politics and setting public policy, but also in commerce, religion, social activism, cultural trends, etc. So, if Public Opinion is important to understand, how can it be measured and analyzed in a rational way? Pre-19th century, opinions were shared much less systematically, more publicly and in local forums. Rhetoric was the main mass communication tool for most of ancient history; the art of public speaking and persuasion was practiced and perfected by orators, sages, prophets and philosophers who would express their ideas and values in unmediated, public forums. Later, with the invention of the printing press, the printed word started to change the way information could be dispersed to the masses. Around the 16th and 17th centuries, in Europe, it was popular for the educated, middle class citizens (were talking mostly about men here, not so much women) like merchants, tradesmen, etc, to spend hours a day at places like coffee houses discussing the news of the day, political ideas, etc. The more elite members of society, like statesmen, artists, and intellectuals often frequented salons which were sometimes visited by Kings and Princes to gauge Public opinion. Early 20th century saw the use of straw polls, un-scientific, non-representative polls, which are still used today - think call-ins and e-polls. Between 1932 and 1945, Elmo Roper, George Gallup, and Ralph Nafziger developed systems for scientific opinion polling. The Gallup poll should

be a familiar name to anyone who has ever paid even the most minute attention to the election cycle in this country, but it is also used for other opinion polling. Today, even though straw polls and informal surveys abound, on every topic from politics to consumer brands, scientific polls/surveys, using random sampling techniques are the established and accepted method of accurately measuring and assessing Public Opinion. Modern day Public Relations discipline attempts to not only measure, understand and interpret Public Opinion, but also to shape and influence it through persuasive communication. Public Opinion, especially in the digital age that dawned with the 21st century, matters more today than ever before. Most political scientists would agree that for Democracies to function properly, informed citizenry is essential. Politicians and policy makers need to understand the beliefs and values held by the public they serve. Beyond politics though, we are in the age of capitalism, a system in which public whim, in the form of the free market can make or break businesses. Capitalism, probably single-handedly, has contributed to the study of Public Opinion like never before. As Bernays realized that propaganda and other forms of persuasive communication could be used to manipulate and mold public opinion, not only for the favor of politicians, but also for consumer businesses, he gave birth to the PR machines of today. The idea that Public Opinion is fickle and often uninformed, therefore needing guidance or manipulation from the more elite members of society, isnt exclusive to Bernays however. Even Habermas, the German social theorist, now believes that his original three features for how Public opinion is best formed - universal access, rational debate, and disregard for rank, no longer exist in any meaningful way in western democratic societies. He says that today, western democracies are highly susceptible to elite manipulation. Unlike

Bernays, who thought that is how it should be, Habermas does not advocate this gullibility on the part of the public. It is fair to say that in modern society, we are in sensory overload; bombarded with images, messages, information, technology to the extent that we cannot possibly have the time or the intellectual energy left to rationally debate or to reflect on our own values as a society. We let ourselves be pulled and pushed in every random direction, the mass media acting like our hypnotizer, lulling us into a trance punctuated with shiny pictures and snappy sounds. If Plato or Bernays were around today, would they consider their points proven? I wouldnt hope so, but maybe they could.

References
Bernays, E. L. (1929). Crystallizing public opinion. New York: Boni and Liveright.

Gershon, S. A. (2012). Press secretaries, journalists, and editors: Shaping local congressional news coverage. Political Communication, 29(2), 160-183. doi: 10.1080/10584609.2012.671230 Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere :An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society [Strukturwandel der ffentlichkeit.English.]. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Political polling in the digital age : The challenge of measuring and understanding public opinion (2011). In Goidel K. (Ed.), . Baton Rouge, LA, USA: LSU Press. Price, V. (2011). Public opinion research in the new century. Public Opinion Quarterly, 75(5), 846-853. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.catalog.lib.cmich.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=ufh&AN=69899637&site=ehost-live Solis, B.End of business as usual, the: Rewire the way you work to succeed in the consumer revolution Wiley. Tnnies, F., Hardt, H., & Splichal, S. (2000). Ferdinand Tnnies on public opinion :Selections and analyses. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.