Spiral of Silence

Del Mundo, Ellicia Frentzen C.

Umlas, Mary Beatrice L.

Villanueva, Synara Mile D.

Yeo, Aimee
I. Introduction.
 Spiral of Silence Theory
created by a German political scientist named Elisabeth

Noelle-Neumannshe and her husband were founders of

the "Public Opinion Organization" the theory indirectly

explained the status of Jews during World War II under the

Nazi's control.
 Spiral of Silence Theory
"observations made in one context (the mass media)

spread to another and encourage people either to

proclaim their views or to swallow them and to keep

quiet until, in a spiraling process, the one view

dominated the public scene and the other disappeared

from public awareness as its adherents became mute.

This is the process that can be called a 'spiral of

silence'."
 Spiral of Silence Theory
Because of people's fear of isolation or separation from

those around them, they tend to keep their attitudes to

themselves when they think they are in the minoritythe media

tends to present only one or two sides of an issue to the

exclusion of othersthe theory argues that the media can have

a powerful influence on everyday talk is focused on the micro

level understanding of how average people come to percieve

the public agenda rather than the macro level long term

consequences.
According to the theory, if there are viewpoints about the

agenda items that are ignored, marginalized, or trivialized

by media reports, people will be reluctant to talk about

them "As regards the connection between selective

perception and the effect of the mass media one can put

forward the hypothesis that the more restricted the

selection the less the reinforcement principle applies, in

other words, the greater the possibility of mass media

changing attitudes."
 Three
Characteristics of New
Media
UBIQUITY
The media are virtually everywhere as source of information

CUMULATION
The various news media tend to repeat stories and perspectives across

their different individual programs or editions, across different media

themselves, across time.

CONSONANCE
The congruence, or similarity, of values held by journalists influences the

content they produce.

 This view of media effects suggests that

two different social processes, one

macroscopic and one microscopic,

simultaneously operate to produce effects

 Social Processes
1.Macroscopic
- Macro-level sociology looks at large-scale social processes, such as social

stability and change.

2. Microscopic
- Micro-level sociology looks at small-scale interactions between individuals, such

as conversation or group dynamics.

   
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-sociology/chapter/the -sociological-

approach/
Audience members, because of their desire to be
accepted, choose to remain silent when confronted

with what they perceive to be prevailing counter

opinion.

Journalists, because of the dynamics of their news-

gathering function, present restricted selection of

news, further forcing into silence those in the

audience who wish to avoid isolation.

III. Elihu Katz.
 Summarization of Elisabeth Noelle-Neumannshe Theory
by Elihu Katz.
Individuals have opinions, and due to fear of isolation, individuals

will not express their opinions if they perceive themselves

unsupported by others.

A "quasi-statistical sense" is employed by individuals to scan the

environment for signs of support.

Perceiving themselves unsupported, groups of individuals who may,

at times, part of a majority – will lose confidence and withdraw from

public debate, consequently will demise their position through self-

fulfilling spiral of silence. They may not change their own minds, but

they stop recruitment of others and abandon the fight.

Mass media constitute the major source of reference for

information about the distribution of opinion and thus the

climate of support and nonsupport.

The media tend to speak in one voice, almost

monopolistically. It tend to distort the distribution of

opinion in society, biased as they are the leftist views of

journalists.

Society is manipulated and improverished therby.

 Katz conclude that these "More subtle, more

sociological (macro level) definitions of effect" would

have us consider the dark side of mass

communication. Even in the democracies, media like
interpersonal communication can impose acquiescence

and silence in defiance of the free flow of information."

IV. Criticisms
 Spiral of Silence Criticisms
Charles Salmon and F. Gerald Kline (1985) – spiral of silence is a

product of bandwagon effect or of projection.

Things to be considered:
Individual factors (person’s degree of ego involvement).

Individual demographic difference

 Caroll Glynn and Jack McLeod (1985)
Spiral of silence is underestimating the power of the

people in a community in mitigating media influence.

Questioned the generalizability of Noelle- Neumann’s

research Media move people to speak up rather than

remain silent.
Noelle- Neumann presented a dominant tendency offered

alternative perspective:

Viewpoint in the media gives the followers of this

viewpoint the advantage of being equipped.

Willingness to talk has nothing to do with the fear of

isolation.
 Strengths Weaknesses

Has overly pessimistic view

Macro and Micro level, of media influence and
dynamic, Accounts for average people,
shifts in public opinion, Ignores the simpler
explanation of silencing
especially during
Ignores possible
campaign, Raises
demographic and cultural
important questions differences in the silencing
concerning the role and effect
responsibility of news Discounts power of
media. community to counteract the
silencing effect.