Abstract
The last chapter largely assumed a single entity called ‘public opinion’ which had certain noble or ignoble attributes; it had a greater or lesser capacity or right to influence events; it did something to someone else — principally the government — or had something done to it — usually something undesirable — by a propagandist or other manipulator. The purpose of this chapter is to subject the concept to some analysis, to examine its components more closely. We need to know more precisely what a public is, and what an opinion is.
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Notes and References
F. A. Allport, ‘Toward a Science of Public Opinion’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1, 1937, 9.
E. J. Baur, ‘Public Opinion and the Primary Group’, American Sociological Review, 25, 1960, 209–10.
Kimball Young, ‘Comments on the Nature of “Public” and “Public Opinion”’, International Journal of Opinion and Attitude Research, 2, 1948, 385.
E. J. Baur, ‘Public Opinion and the Primary Group’, American Sociological Review, 25, 1960, 209.
V. O. Key, Public Opinion and American Democracy, 1961, 10–11. This is a view held also by, inter alia, Herbert Goldhamer, ‘Public Opinion and Personality’, American Journal of Sociology, 55, 1950, 346.
William Bauer, ‘Public Opinion’, Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 13, 1934, 670.
Tom Harrisson, ‘What is Public Opinion?’, Political Quarterly, 11, 1940, 374.
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, ‘The Spiral of Silence: A Theory of Public Opinion’, Journal of Communication, 24, 1974, 44.
F. A. Allport, ‘Toward a Science of Public Opinion’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1, 1937, 14.
G. W. Allport, ‘The Composition of Political Attitudes’, American Journal of Sociology, 35, 1929, 221.
G. D. Wiebe, ‘Some Implications of Separating Opinions from Attitudes’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 17, 1953, 329.
Daniel Katz, ‘The Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 24, 1960, 168.
G. D. Wiebe, ‘Some Implications of Separating Opinions from Attitudes’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 17, 1953, 333.
Irving Sarnoff and Daniel Katz, ‘The Motivational Bases of Attitude Change’, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 49, 1954, 116.
Milton Rokeach, ‘The Nature of Attitudes’, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. I, 1968, 455.
See Morris Rosenberg, ‘Self-Esteem and Concern with Public Affairs’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 26, 1962, 201.
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© 1985 Terence H. Qualter
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Qualter, T.H. (1985). Of Publics and Opinions. In: Opinion Control in the Democracies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17775-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17775-2_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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