The Transition: Information from Media to Mind

Abstract

The conventional wisdom for decades in social science was that the media produces minimal effects on opinions. But recent research demonstrates that the media has a pervasive sway on political opinions and understandings. It can persuade, prime, frame, set the political agenda, and shape political opinions. It can facilitate or impede spirals of silence, ideological segregation and polarization, and the acquisition of political knowledge. While the media is far from a hypodermic needle capable of injecting ideas into our minds, it is nonetheless the greatest influence on public opinion, as it is the conduit through which the building blocks of public opinion are transported. Therefore, biases in the supply of information are likely to translate into biases in our political knowledge, from which we construct our understanding of the political world and act in it.