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Mass Communication Application

Mass Communication Application
The theory I have chosen for my mass communication application is the Spiral of Silence theory of Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. She believes that certain people feel increasing pressure to keep silent and not voice their opinions when they feel like they are part of a marginalized or minority group. This is because they feel if they speak out then they will become isolated from the rest of the group and or ridiculed for their opinions and ideas. It basically refers to the idea that public opinion is what keeps people in line and leads to the basic following of crowds and groups. If people are afraid of being made fun of or isolated from everyone else, most if not all will conform to the ideas of the masses. It says that if they don't stand firm in what they believe it doesn't necessarily mean they don't believe in it anymore, they just tend to go with the crowds in fear. This allows the larger picture to seem as if everyone has a certain opinion from the outside when not everyone actually does on the inside.
Noelle-Neumann uses the example of elections as one way to show her theory. She explains that the most accurate way to predict the winning candidate is not to ask the people which candidate are they going to vote for, but rather who do they think is most likely to win. Even though the people say they are going to stick with their candidate, the assessment they have of the political climate tends to be reliable indicators of what will happen in an election. All the people in the middle ground that are not partial to either side or haven't decided which side to vote for will most likely end up leaning toward the most foreseen winning candidate to avoid being isolated against the public opinion. This entire example however is backed up with the idea that the mass media plays a large and powerful role. Television seems to create, in many situations, a single point of view with constant repetition of its messages. This constant...