The public opinion is the aggregation of the whole of the individual attitudes, the judgments and the convictions of the majority of the adult population of a given company (in general on the level of a country).

Influences exerted on the public opinion

The public opinion can be influenced by the Public relations and the political Propagande. Moreover, the Média S employ a vast range of advertizing techniques to diffuse their own message and to make change idea the people to which they are addressed.

Many has the claim “to manage” the opinion and in the Années 1960 of the American researchers had highlighted the concept of “leader of opinion”, i.e. a phase of intermediation between the receiver and the transmitter, which an intellectual, a policy or a journalist could occupy. All in all, a social actor who is given a certain credit near crowd.

Importance

The importance of the public opinion becomes crucial during the periods of electoral campaigns. Since the last quarter of the XXe century, it is frequently measured using Sondage S of opinion.

She would be recognized since the 18th century, even if from time immemorial she is related to the community life. The public opinion is one gives inescapable process of being able, of domination. One is often satisfied to mention that she was born under the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment, but the public opinion is the subject already of many reflections during the Greek Antiquité. The philosopher Plato inaugurates a long tradition on this subject by condemning the public opinion ( doxa vulgus ) for his versality, his too great sensitivity and his superficiality which deliver it in grazing ground to the sophists which train the politicians of then with sales handling. In France, it merges with a new force which emerged in the last years of the Ancien Mode.

Blur surrounding the definition

Certain sociologists, the following the example of Pierre Bourdieu, go until denying the existence of a public opinion.

In fact, one cannot give a single definition of the public opinion. Although the concept is used more and more, it is extremely complex, the term has several directions. It can be an individual judgment which can be certain or dubious. One understands by there too a whole of collective attitudes.

The “public” term is also complex. One can use it like an adjective in opposition to the private term. It can be also a substantive: public. In this case there, it can be confused with crowd. That can also be a whole of individuals who share a series of points and interest commun runs.

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