Public Opinion

Consists in the desires, thoughts and demands of most people in a society. It also comprises the
population collectively views of vital policy issues and evaluates political leaders. Public opinion is an
important factor of every society, and it gains more importance in a democratic society where the
opinion of the people shapes the future of the government. Public Opinion is mainly an ideology
issue and can be used to manipulates the behavior of a society to obtain certain results.

Politically speaking, Public Opinion is helpful when governments or societies can keep inform to its
population. A group of people aware of their community problems and tribulations can be an agent
of change and evolution in society. But the truth is that most of the people do not have an opinion
about State issues at all. Many people just do not care about the political life of their country and
consider it alien to their own interests. Nowadays, internet and news can be read everywhere and
are extremely easy to approach; but people do not seem any more inform than before about political
and social issues that should matter. To have people participate as an efficient agent of opinion some
requisites are needed:

1. The people should know what they want

2. The people should be able to communicate what they want to government officials
3. And the government should pay attention to the public desires and respond accordingly

Unfortunately, these conditions are rarely provided by societies. Most of our opinion are shaped by
the government itself, private groups (interest groups) and the Media that tells society what to think.
So Public opinion, rather than a tool of democracy, has become a mean of mass manipulation that
uses the three influences mentioned before to shape the minds of the citizens. For example, Media
can shape the opinion of the people by choosing which stories to cover and not to cover.

Under this environment, governments and power groups have developed some psychological
techniques to manipulate the Public Opinion. Fake news campaigns are widely spread to generate
panic or sympathy given the case to certain positions. Other tools widely used is to generate a
popular point of view (or create the illusion that is popular) so people will agree with that opinion
responding to they necessity to belong; this effect is known as the Van Wagon Effect. Other tool is to
create gossips about a topic and spread them to manipulate the opinion of people and drive them to
think one way or take one stance. Finally, the Influencers can also be mentioned as means to
manipulate people’s opinion; they are people that are respect in the society as opinion leaders and
are considered to have an important opinion about important and specific issues. This last point has
been largely spread by the Internet and the use of social media, where more people are able to
express themselves and be reached by other. Opinion leaders can be used to shape the mind of the
group they aim.

It is important to understand the Public Opinion as part of an ideology. Public opinion is

shaped everywhere in society and it is easy to manipulate to favor certain power groups.
Societies form their values and opinion since children are in the school; and the exposition
never stops. The news, internet, television, and the newspaper; all this media is used to
shape an opinion that normally fits in one common ideology that is widespread by the
governments.