Miyerkules, Nobyembre 30, 2016

Spiral of Silence


The Spiral of Silence theory suggests that when there is a dominant opinion, other opinions are silenced. The theory was originally proposed by a German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann in the year 1974. It is said to have five elements; first is the threat of isolation. It begins that in order to maintain a structural society,  a collective cohesion of its members must be insured by a level of agreement on values and goals, that in order to maintain the social order, society tends to threaten isolation for the people who violate the consensus.  Second element is an assumption that was based on experiment; the fear of isolation, because people fear being isle and thus take measures to avoid consequences. Third element would be the quasi-statistical sense where in it is described as an innate ability to gauge the public opinion, the mass media play a large part in determining what the dominant opinion is. The mass media can dramatically people’s perception about where their public opinion lies, whether it is factual or not. The next element is the willingness to speak out; people tend to publicly express their opinions when they believe their opinion to be dominant, on the other hand, when people believe their opinion is less popular, they are less likely to voice it in public. And lastly, the spiral effect; the tendency of the individual to speak up and the other to be silent and the other individual to be silent starts off a spiralling process which increasingly establishes one’s opinion as the dominant one.


            A perfect example of this theory is its presence in social media, especially on Facebook. Especially on the recent presidential elections in the United States. It’s either people try to support the most popular candidate confidently or they do not give out their opinions at all. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center has found that people were less willing to discuss one issue — according to the survey, 86% of Americans were more willing to have an in-person conversation regarding the Political issues, but just 42% of the Facebook and other social media platform users were willing to post their opinions online. It has been well documented since before the internet that a ‘spiral of silence’ descends when people think their opinions are in the minority when compared to those around them – they don’t want to speak out if they think they hold unpopular views,” noted Prof. Keith Hampton, the author of the study. “This kind of self-censoring can mean that important information is never shared. Some had hoped that social media might provide new outlets that encourage more discussion and the exchange of a wider range of opinions. But we see the opposite – a spiral of silence exists online, too. If people did not think that their friends and followers in social media agreed with them, they were less likely to say they would state their views online.”



            The spiral of silence theory is also present in professional workplaces, in businesses. When a new rule is set in an organisation, most of the employees usually do not complain. The minority who want to protest also cannot do it due to the fear of isolation. This mostly happens to the women in the business industry. Although there is a presence of the spiral of silence, according to Andy Valeri, a researcher, businesses replace the theory with a virtuous spiral of communication”. He said that “this is in order to avoid some of the most negative consequences of spiral of silence effects, which can occur when upward communication within an organisation is suppressed and management interprets the silence that ensues as agreement with policies which may be detrimental to the overall effectiveness of the organisation (Haufler, 2007). Assuming that communication within a business structure, no matter its perceived popularity, is essential to managing a profitable business environment.”


            My last example would be the presence of the theory in one of the best movies made, Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg. During the Holocaust most media was channeled through radio and newspapers, but Nazi Germany is one of the best examples in history of how public opinion can be controlled. Because public opinion in Germany during the Holocaust was so strong the hard core did not only risk isolation, but persecution, incarceration and death. Schindler spent all of his money to take hundreds of Jews and have them work in his factory to save then from the horrible fate of the concentration camps. The Jews is the the end of the spiral willing to speak out at any cost.

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