The spiral of silence

In daily life, we will use the concept of "public opinion" without thinking. However, what is public opinion, how does it come into being, and what role does it play in our social life?

The spiral of silence is a classic bibliography of communication, which mainly points out the social control function of public opinion on individuals. She explored the causes and manifestations of her "silent spiral" from many disciplines, and adopted a variety of investigation and research tools such as second-hand data analysis, questionnaire survey, experiment, public opinion survey, content analysis and impact analysis. The most important thing is to get the conclusion that "in order to understand the meaning of public opinion, the most important thing is to find out how this concept came into being, under what circumstances and through what observation." She believes that mass media plays a powerful role in influencing public opinion, and this mechanism that plays an important role in the emergence and development of public opinion is the "silent spiral". This theory is a typical representative of the powerful effect theory of mass communication. Compared with the "panacea theory" which has irreplaceable and powerful function in the past, it is more inclined to study the long-term and indirect effects brought by mass communication and make a diversified macro analysis of the whole communication process.

When writing this reading note, I haven't finished reading The Spiral of Silence. I can only say that it's just a smell. I plan to read it again after the semester, so the appendix of this reading note contains a lot of content, and it is also for me to remember more important knowledge in the book.

The writing background of this book is in the period of mass media, so I think the understanding of this book is whether the spiral of silence can be applied in the new media environment. It still applies, but it will be influenced and impacted by the media changes in the social update episode, and there is no subversive change in essence.

(1) Changes in social environment and media environment-the impact of new media;

First, the Internet environment is characterized by anonymity and virtuality, which has largely disintegrated the "fear of being isolated". The unreality of the network makes people's psychological "security" increase.

Secondly, because network communication has the characteristics of interpersonal communication, mass communication and organizational communication, everyone on the network can express their opinions, and their opinions are becoming more and more diverse. In other words, the "climate of public opinion" has also become more complicated. In this case, the concept of "majority opinion" will become vague.

Finally, in the appendix, I also mentioned the related theory, which is opposite to the spiral context of silence-the "anti-silence spiral" theory. Scholars who put forward this theory believe that in cyberspace, this is a kind of free, equal and open communication equality, which breaks the "opinion making" of mass communication and reduces the fear of society, so the spiral of silence will not happen. This theory takes advantage of the anonymity and virtuality of the network, and breaks its hypothesis foundation first.

(2) the influence of the post-truth era:

In the post-truth era, the occurrence and development of online public events often follow the logic of emotion. The focus of public attention is often emotional and belongs to the group, rather than really caring about the truth. Therefore, in the recent network scandal, rationality was suppressed by emotions, and public opinion finally went to the "silent spiral theory."

(3) The unique position of network opinion leaders:

Opinion leaders and their effects are very significant at present, which is embodied in the fact that advertisers will make choices by quantifying the star's ability to carry goods and commercial value. The authority and great influence of opinion leaders play an important role in guiding online public opinion. Weibo's "big V" should become a common phenomenon, and powerful fans can easily exclude different voices and make them become silent.

When people express their thoughts and opinions, if they see that the opinions they agree with are widely welcomed, they will actively participate, and such opinions will be published and spread more boldly; And found that no one or very few people pay attention to a certain point of view (sometimes there will be a gang attack), even if they agree, they will remain silent. The silence of one party leads to the increase of the opinions of the other party, and this cycle forms a spiral development process in which one party's voice becomes louder and louder and the other party becomes more and more silent.

1.？ Basic viewpoint: The "spiral of silence" theory is based on the assumption that "most individuals will try to avoid isolation caused by holding certain attitudes and opinions alone".

There are three basic views:

First, the expression of personal opinions is a social and psychological process. As a social animal, people always want to seek support from the surrounding environment and avoid being isolated by others. Individuals will observe the surrounding opinion environment before expressing their opinions. When they find themselves in the "majority" or "dominant" opinion, they will be more inclined to express their opinions, otherwise they will be more inclined to succumb to environmental pressure and turn to "silence" or "echo".

Second, the expression of opinions and the diffusion of silence are a spiraling social communication process. In other words, the existence of silence makes the dominant opinion more and more powerful, and the pressure of public opinion is also increasing, forcing more people with different opinions to choose to remain silent, or to change their views and follow the existing strong opinions.

Third, mass communication influences and restricts public opinion by creating a "public opinion environment". The formation of public opinion is not the result of "rational discussion" by the public, but the product of the unreasonable process that the pressure of "public opinion environment" acts on people's fear of isolation, leading people to take convergent actions against "dominant opinions"

2.？ Theoretical basis: The theoretical basis of "spiral of silence" mainly comes from psychology, mass communication and sociology. It involves three key concepts: fear of isolation, opinion climate and quasi-sensory statistics.

(1) "Fear of isolation": From a psychological point of view, one of the strongest motives of human social behavior is "not being isolated". For fear of being isolated, individuals may choose to change their existing thoughts or behaviors.

(2) "Opinion climate": the distribution of opinions in their own environment, including existing opinions and opinions that may appear in the future. There are two main sources of "opinion climate"-group opinions in the environment and mass communication.

(3) "Quasi-sensory statistics": Everyone has the ability of "quasi-sensory statistics" to judge the situation of "opinion climate", what kind of behaviors and opinions are recognized or not recognized by their environment, and what kind of opinions and behaviors are being strengthened or weakened.

3.？ Related theories:

(1) "Anti-silent spiral theory";

S. Moskau Vichy pointed out that the "hard core" in group resultant force shows firm will, unanimous opinion and fierce attitude, which can exert a strong influence on the "majority", even change the group resultant force (agreement) and promote the formation of new resultant force.

This is another public opinion formation process different from the "silent spiral", that is, the public opinion mechanism that evolved from a few opinions to a majority opinion. This theory emphasizes the importance of opinion leaders, whose appeal can change or even reverse the form of public opinion and awaken the power of those who are silent. In fact, the "spiral of silence" cannot have the same effect on everyone in the group. There are always some "minority" firm opinions in the group. These so-called "hard-core elements" always insist on their own opinions, which will play a guiding role in the expression of the opinions of "fuzzy groups" in fuzzy areas and even affect the opinions of leading groups in turn.

(2) "reference group theory":

Reference groups are actually individuals or groups that individuals use for reference and comparison when making purchase or consumption decisions. First of all, it refers to groups where individuals, such as family and friends, interact directly. Now it also covers individuals and groups who have no direct face-to-face contact with individuals, but have an influence on personal behavior.

According to the spiral theory of silence, most people who hold opinions contrary to the dominant opinions will choose to remain silent or change their opinions. However, if someone's view of inferiority contrary to the mass media is supported by close reference groups, such as family members, friends and lovers, he will be more inclined to stick to his own views, less likely to choose silence for fear of being isolated, and more inclined to express his views and ideas boldly and not shrink back in his speech.

(3) the double helix of silence:

The fields of the double helix are traditional mass media and authoritative voice channels, emerging self-media platforms and other ideographic platforms. In the Internet society, traditional media actively integrate into the network society, form their own opinion advantages with rich experience and resources, carry forward mainstream values, spread information from top to bottom, and make the audience gradually recognize and accept the voice of traditional media, forming a "silent spiral".

The emerging self-media platform actively participates in the formation of public opinion by virtue of the new platform, actively expresses opinions, finds new channels for its own interests, and also changes the dependence of individuals on mass communication. This platform will attract more individuals with the same psychological tendency and urge them to move forward in the opinion group. Individuals and follow-up groups in the context of new media often consider problems from the perspective of self-appeal, with strong emotional color, often appear under the influence of criticism and reflection, and spread from bottom to top, forming another "silent spiral".

This concept requires us to broaden our horizons, break through the shackles of the one-way spiral of traditional media, and pay attention to the "media agenda spiral of top-down information dissemination" and "public agenda spiral of bottom-up information dissemination". And understand the dual role of these two forces in promoting the formation of public opinion in the construction of public opinion field.