1- PUBLIC OPINION-TOWARDS A DEFINITION

Concept

Concept

The concept of public opinion emerged during the Enlightenment, although the concepts of opinion and public, separately, go back to a previous temporal context in which each implied a series of meanings that continue to be used to this day.

The term “opinion” has been used in two main ways

*From an epistemological point of view, opinion refers to a lesser form of knowledge that consists in the mere evaluative personal judgment about a fact (an opinion),

In a different sense, the term has been used to indicate consideration esteem or reputation (as when you have a favorable opinion of someone or something).Both senses entail the notion of personal judgement, although in the second case the emphasis is placed in the moral dimension of the judgment, that is, in the approval or censure of human behaviors.

Term “Public”

one of its earliest uses, it refers to "common access" to spaces open to the population in general, to places considered public (Habermas, 1981)

*In a second sense, it refers to the "common interest" and the "common good“ as synonymous with representation of the population as a whole.

*In qualitative terms, a refers to the degree of interest social groups show in the face of events of common interest. In this sense, the public is equated people and social groups that actively participate in the public debate on a specific issue;

*there is another contemporary definition of public according to which it is simply the population of voting age in elections

According to Allport (1937),

Any concept of public that is not fully inclusive (not including every individual in a given population) is too ambiguous. This definition corresponds to vthe one made by sociologists and integrates various aspects, such as

• Formed by groups of people.

• Dispersed in space (proximity or interpersonal relationship is not necessary).

• With similar interests.

• Exposed to similar stimuli (the focus of attraction or common attention).

• Apparently using reason to join the debate being held in the public space.

• That they have the conviction of being part of a larger social entity, which implies awareness and, ultimately, collective action

Public Space by Wolton 1997

“The history of public space is the history of the transit of a model of society where diverse communities cohabited hierarchically to a model of society where partial communities lost their importance for the benefit of that more universal space. (...) Then, from the eighteenth century, this battle was transformed, in the name of the ideals of the Revolution, in favor of the slow and difficult constitution of a public space as a space for expression and deliberation of free and equal citizens in their rights."

BOURGEOIS PUBLIC SPHERE

Habermas explains that during the journey of the eighteenth century emerges what he calls "bourgeois public sphere", which can also be understood as a "political public sphere". "The bourgeois public sphere can be understood, above all, as the sphere of private people gathered in an audience." (Chartier 1991: 33).

Calling it a "bourgeois public sphere," Habermas gives it a distinctive feature: it has pointed out that it is only a bourgeois phenomenon; not, therefore, a phenomenon of other social classes.

In its early use…

public opinion thus referred to the beliefs of this emerging social class of "prosperous men of letters," although by the end of the century was used in a purely political context, often in parallel with the expressions of «common good» and «public conscience»

1750 is considered as the year…

in which the term "public opinion" is first used, when Rousseau presents himself to the Award of the Academy of Dijon with his "Discourse on Sciences and the Arts

Public Opinion Rousseau

• guide towards a new order

• comitted with an ideal

• control element - shaped by the press

Public opinion as… THE COLLECTIVE POSITION OR SOCIOLOGICAL MODEL

• According to this perspective, public opinion constitutes a supra-individual social product. (not a mere sum of diverse opinions), which is the opinion of a community called "public". Park (1921: 223) states that "what we normally mean by public opinion is never the opinion of someone in particular. it's an opinion-composite, representing a general trend of the public as a whole.

The public Cooley and Park. Thus, Cooley (1909: 121) refers to public opinion as «a product cooperative communication and rational influence.

• «The mass and the public are distinguished because in the first the instinct dominates and in the second,reason prevails«

Public opinion as… THE INDIVIDUALISTIC POSITION OR PSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL

The most common conception of public opinion today is that of the sum of opinions of a group or «what opinion polls try to measure» (Price, 1994; This is the so-called posture individualistic or psychological model.

• The change of perspective, that is, the passage from the collective to the individualist position (that is, to public opinion understood as an aggregate of opinions), there is in the thirties of the twentieth century with the emergence of polls.

• This variation of approach was propitiated by the development of quantitative techniques for the measurement of attitudes and the widespread application of scientific sampling theory to social research to conduct opinion polls.

Public opinion as… THE MIXED POSITION- INTEGRATION

Lazar (1995: 3-7) points out the following characteristics of public opinion:

• It is a collective phenomenon. Although opinions are individuals properties, public opinion is not simply their aggregate.

• It must be considered essentially as a complex communication process complex, which includes at the same time inter-individual relations and the mechanisms of the mass media.

• The survey allows to know, in a photographic way, the opinion of the individuals on a certain subject at a precise moment, while the Public opinion is a social process that is articulated over time.

HABERMAS public opinion

Jurgen Habermas (Dusseldorf,1929).

• Habermas' perspective has its axis on the link between public opinion and democratic government. Indeed, it is public opinion seen from a political angle, of rulers and rulers who achieve their representation through it. This thesis has similarities with heterogeneous authors such as Machiavelli, Hume, Bentham, Holtzendorf, and intertwines public opinion with the performance of an efficient representative democracy.

• Public opinion is formed and issued by all citizens; mainly when confronted to discuss a political issue or that belongs to the city. For this author, moreover, the physical realm of public opinion is democratic and civil spaces.

NOELLE-NEUMANN public opinion

Noelle-Neumann (Berlín, 1916-2010),

• Public opinion as a social fact where different expressions of the behavior of a collective converge. For this author, issues from politics to culture converge in public opinion. For Noelle-Neumann, moreover, the issues that public opinion deals with have the resources to be able to gain more followers and thus build opinions with greater social acceptance.

• Fear of social isolation, for the author, is a psychological factor that is favourable to the currents that make up public opinion, because it causes minorities, who have not yet weighed theiropinion, to come together and incorporate into the social thinking that the majority has. Faced with social pressure, the undecided individual often joins one side, a stream of opinion that protects him from repudiation and social seclusion., which Noelle-Neumann empirically analyzed This kind of behavior demonstrating, the so-called Spiral of Silence (the power of the currents of opinion that slip within public opinion)

NIKLAS-LUHMANN public opinion

Luhmann argues that public opinion is the "most preliminary consensus or agreement on the recognition of issues as in the public interest." Luhmann's concept is different from that of Habermas and Noelle-Neumann; does not antagonize with either directly, but differs strictly from both. According to this, public opinion is a topical social agreement so that some issues (of various kinds, such as in the case of Noelle-Neumann) are unanimously conceived as important within a society.

• The agreement understands that all persons who are attached to the same society will understand what the issues are about. This does not imply, however, that there is consensus on opinions, because each individual takes a particular stance, but everyone understands those of the rest and understands what they would disagree with others.

Public opinion as… RATIONAL VISION

The first of these approaches underlines the rationality element of public opinion, which contributes to the process of opinion formation and decision-making in a democracy.

Why? Because one of the fundamental characteristics of the public it is rationality.

• This notion is the one maintained by Park

Public opinion as SOCIAL CONTROL VISION

The second approach identifies public opinion with social control, so that this helps to promote social integration and to ensure a level of consensus thanks to which actions and decisions can be carried out .

This would be a latent function of public opinion: a consequence that is neither intended nor recognized.

This second approach mean putting the emphasis on public opinion being the main instrument of control of a society

(Which is imposed for example, on the tastes of fashion, or through traditions, or in the imposition of what is well seen and what is not)

ALTHOUGH rationality or social control

have full validity in current thinking the latter perception of public opinion, understood as a form of social control, serves to explain a number of collective phenomena and is the basis for some relevant theories that have been empirically confirmed, such as the theory of the spiral of silence of Noelle-Neumann.

The understanding of public opinion as a phenomenon of control of tastes

and opinions of the collectivity offers a number of advantages

• First, it allows to explain the power exercised by public opinion over the Government and citizens (the latter for fear of social isolation), something that does not achieve the rational interpretation of public opinion. The decisive factor Is which of the two sides in a dispute has sufficient strength to threaten the opposing side with isolation and ostracism

• Secondly, the concept of public opinion rationally shaped is based on the idea of an informed citizen capable of formulating reasonable arguments and correct judgments, an idea that does not include all

  members of society. On the contrary, public opinion as social control does affect to all of them.

• Finally…It connects the individual level with the social level.

PHASES OF THE GROWTH OF PUBLIC OPINION AS DISCIPLINE

1. Anticipation and approaches to the idea

2. The birth of Public Opinion, linked to political philosophy.

3. The consolidation of P O, as a linked to sociology, psychology and communication sciences

1. Anticipation and approaches to the idea (phases)

There are references to theterm "opinión" in the Republic of Platón and in the thought of Aristorteles. In the writings of Protágoras (s. V BC), we find the término "poleon dogma", which literally translates as "belief of cities

2. The birth of public opinion, linked to political philosophy. (phases)

Locke conceives the public opinion as the one that makes moral judgments ; Hume (1777), as the political force that sustains governments; and Rousseau (1762), as an institutionalized and personalized power through the figure of

the censor. In the eighteenth century the English liberal thought (from Burke and Bentham) and the French one (by Constant and accentuate the political function of the public opinion as an intermediate element; Expresses the consensus with the Government between an election and the next one. Also during the nineteenth century the approaches to public opinion were mainly of a normative and philosophical nature.

III. The consolidation of public opinion as a linked to sociology, psychology and communication sciences. (phases)

At the beginning of the twentieth century there was a change of approach in the study of Public Opinion This happens to reflect more clearly areas as “attitude and opinion” propaganda, political behaviour and the effects of media on citizens.