Communication & Public opinion(Cutlip et al.)
● Communication: reciprocal process of exchanging signals to inform, instruct, or persuade, based on shared meanings and conditioned by communicators' relationship and social context.
● 4 steps:– attracting attention to the communication,– achieving acceptance of the message,– having it interpreted as intended, and– getting the message stored for later use.
Mass Media in Public Opinion Formation
● Early theorists: mass communication tell us about events, things, people and places we could not experience directly ourselves.
● W. Lippmann: "the world outside and the pictures in our heads." > triangular relationship– Much of the world is "out of reach, out of sight, out
of mind." – Mass media help us create "trustworthy picture" of
the world
Model of Individual Orientation● Individuals hold opinions of varying degrees
of relevance and intensity – Salience or feelings about an object derived
from an individual's experiences and reinforcements from previous situations (result of history)
– Pertinence: relative value of an object on the basis of objectbyobject comparisons on the basis of some attribute or attributes.
Sociocultural Model of Persuasion● Spiral of silence theory (silent majority)● Media coverage can reflect, enforce, or challenge
spiral of silence effect – E.g. public information campaigns on smoking,
drinking, and driving, substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and safe sex
● Messages presented via mass media may provide appearance of consensus regarding orientation and action with respect to a given object or goal of persuasion
Model of Coorientation● Intrapersonal construct of congruency
describes extent to which own views match estimate of another's views on same issue (perceived agreement) – > formulate strategies for dealing with the other
person or for spontaneously responding in interactions
● Accuracy: extent to which estimate matches other person's actual views.
Types of Coorientational Consensus
● Public opinion as product of both individual perceptions on an issue and their perceptions of what significant others think about same issue
● Perceptions of agreement more likely affect public behaviour than does actual agreement
● =complex social phenomenon
Coorientational Model of OrganizationPublic Relationships
● Helps identify 3 PR problems:– Organisation and public hold different definitions
of an issue talking about different issues– Organisation's perceptions of public's views of an
issue (evaluations / definitions) do not match public's actual views inaccurate estimates
– Members of a public hold inaccurate perceptions of an organisation's position on an issue of mutual concern inaccurate estimates of management policy and values