Public opinion is a collection of individual opinions and reflects majority beliefs. This means that one must interview different individuals and add their opinions in order to have a public opinion. Public opinion is a reflection of the beliefs of the majority in that it is based on what majority of the people think (Glynn, Herbst, Okeefe and Shapiro, p. 11). Opinions of friends, neighbours and co-workers are reported in such a way that they conform to the majority opinion. Public opinion occurs as a result of social processes that affect the nature of attitudes, beliefs and values. This means that public opinion is entangled in various societal forces such as the family concept, …show more content…
The word public can take various social forms including a crowd or even masses. A crowd is made of a mass of people that are collectively enticed to participate in activities that they would not participate in if acting individually. A mass is a collection of anonymous individuals who react in response to personal needs. A public can therefore be positively identified with a crowd or a mass that develop in response to common emotions. Saying so, the behaviour of the public is influenced by at least a shared emotional drive. Therefore, the nature of the public and opinions that different individuals have creates the complex nature of public opinion as a concept (Glynn, Herbst, Okeefe and Shapiro, p. 11).
Public opinion can be influenced by various factors and sources that revolve around social interactions and communication. These factors include individual attributes, environmental influence, and communication, among other factors. Individual attributes involve the individual values, beliefs, needs, expectations, or even emotions that each individual holds. People have different preferences of their outcomes for themselves and others. For instance, idiosyncratic preferences based on a person’s culture or background might influence a person to choose a positive rather than a negative …show more content…
These environmental influences pose social pressures that individuals have to conform to and this ultimately influences one’s attitudes and opinions. For instance, individuals may choose to like Coca cola more than Pepsi cola just because a popular person likes coca cola (Glynn, Herbst, Okeefe and Shapiro, p. 17).
Communication and information flow also influence public opinion in that it forms the basis of a relationship between two people. While forming an opinion, information flow means that decisions do not need to be made sequentially and that people can always change their opinions. Individual attributes cannot be separated from the environment in which they live in or from the information flow. This means that environmental influences and information flow influence individual attributes and vice