Public Opinion

Christian Baden, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
c.baden@mail.huji.ac.il

Public Opinion describes the content and distribution of opinions toward an issue expressed and shared by members of a public. In a narrower sense, it refers to any stances that are supported by a majority or plurality (relying on an electoral metaphor); in a wider sense, it also includes a latitude of common stances that are recognised as legitimate, and can be expressed in public discourse without fear of being sanctioned. Accordingly, public opinion foregrounds the (actual or perceived) common ground or mainstream of opinions, discounting fringe, rare, and contested ones. Public opinion is said to be divided on an issue if no one stance is widely accepted as preferable or legitimate. It necessarily pertains to issues that are widely recognised as relevant to the public as a whole - most commonly, issues that are negotiated, or demanded to be negotiated, by political institutions. Public opinion presupposes the presence of a freely accessible public discourse enabling and synchronising public engagement and opinion formation toward these issues.

In social science research, public opinion is studied primarily as the outcome of public communication processes (from socialisation to cultural myth making to news and strategic communication), and as an antecedent of various forms of collective and mass behavior (e.g., political participation, consumer choices).

Within the study of public opinion, there are two competing paradigmatic views: One tradition, which has been dominant since the 1970s, understands public opinion as the statistical distribution of preferences held among members of the public, relying on quantitative survey methods for measurement; the other tradition, which dominated up to the 1950s, but is gradually resurfacing in the wake of agenda setting, framing, and digital media research, understands public opinion as a discursive process, and relies heavily on text analytic approaches.

Keywords: issues, collective preferences, public sphere

References:
Allport, F. H. (1937). Toward a science of public opinion. Public Opinion Quarterly, 1(1), 7-23. https://doi.org/10.1086/265034
Berelson, B. (1952). Democratic theory and public opinion. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 16(3), 313-330. https://doi.org/10.1086/266397
Splichal, S. (1999). Public opinion: Developments and controversies in the twentieth century. Rowman & Littlefield.