1. Media Effects on Public Opinion

2. Public Opinion Concepts of: –Difference between basic values and preferences: overall views and recent ideas –Organized Vs unorganized nature of opinions: specialized groups –Private Vs public setting where opinions are expressed –Whether or not citizens are informed –Hegemony (Beniger) means through which people control and are simultaneously controlled by one another through public communication

3. Defining Public Opinion Nimmo—three groups –Popular—expressed privately –Mass—generally what is thought of as public opinion; culture –Group—those expressed in groups exchanges

4. Mass Media’s Influence on Defining Public Opinion 1)seeks public opinion with its own research and reports findings;CNN/Time Poll 2)quest to report others research and findings 3)report on topics and events and group’s feelings about them

5. Significance Noelle-Neumann—the management of ideas is important in advanced societies that engage in symbolic rather than direct forms of struggle. Government that does not consider public opinion in decision making soon finds itself in “overthrow” situation

6. Significance Tolerance provides for peaceful competition of ideas while ideology links opinions to a more enduring set of organized values and beliefs. Tolerance is higher among younger and better educated. Ideology is important because it works as a constraint; people’s belief systems are used to interpret incoming issues and to form opinions.

7. Mass Media and Public Opinion Exchange model—government and media relationship is transactional with almost equal give and take Media has substantial impact on public opinion Fan—also public opinion responds to shifts in media content; all media have effect

8. Types of Effects Sherer—media reflect or anticipate public opinion and change their coverage and presentation as public support varies— Vietnam War Bennett—direct impact of media on policy makers (during Reagan era) Lambeth—press help establish agenda setting for policymaking (what’s important)

9. More Effects Entman—interdependence model: public opinion grows out of interaction between media messages and what audiences make of them Iyengar & Kinder—priming—calling attention to certain aspects while ignoring others thus setting standards (of Presidential behavior in this case)

10. Spiral of Silence Theory Noelle-Nuemann—people measure which opinions are popular and which are not and are therefore more likely to express the majority opinion; this gives the effect that the unsupported position is weaker than it actually is and therefore it becomes weaker in a spiral effect.

11. Factors Pressure to conform Willingness to express opinions in public Multiple climates of opinion (local; national) Nature of public context Accuracy of perceptions of opinion climate

12. Nature of public context Keenan—three dependent variables of Spiral of Silence –Personal adornment—buttons, hats, t-shirts –Public display—sign in yard, distributing literature, doing interviews –Interpersonal contact—speaking with strangers and those you know; signing petitions

13. Accuracy of perceptions of opinion climate Rimmer and Howard—level of use would correlate to accuracy; higher level of use/higher accuracy Others theorize: –Conformity hypothesis (people conform to and are influenced by their environment) –Looking glass model (people projecting their own opinions on others rather than being influenced by their environment)