Key Post Blog #9

The Spiral of Silence

    The spiral of silence was originally proposed in 1947 by a German political scientist named Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. This theory explores why some groups of people are silent in public settings while others are more vocal. The theory states that people we believe their opinion is less popular will remain quiet while people who have a more popular opinion will be more vocal. People are directly affected by how they think people will perceive their opinion. The spiral part of the spiral of science theory is when people continually hold back their opinion. As the popular opinion gains more and more attention the minority opinion disappears more and more. This continues until the minority group no longer speaks out. Therefore the popular opinion becomes the social norm. The spiral model can be used to understand the reasoning behind the spiral of silence. The first step explains the individuals desire to blend in and be accepted by society and their fear of isolation. Step two is when the individual notices their opinion is not gaining popularity they become more reserved. Step three says that people who see their opinion gaining popularity begin to speak more and more. The last step is the result of people who are not publicly expressing their opinion due to the fear of isolation.

                 

    The spiral of science affects society as a whole and the individual person. Media/ social media has a huge impact on what we as a society believe is the right thing or the social norm. For example, there are many common ads that we see whether it's a commercial or a billboard outside of a store. The most common criticism is the lack of representation of real women. Most ads feature size 2 women thin, perfect skin, long flowing hair essentially they’re perfect. This excludes minorities of what other women might look like whether it’s the color of your skin or the specific body type you have. Another example I read about was the Gulf War. In 1991 when the war was going on there was a mass survey to see peoples opinion on whether the United States should be involved in the war or not. The survey showed that the majority of people did not believe the United States should be involved. However when the media got involved they had different findings. Most people stated they believed the United States should be involved in the war. This was due to the fact they did not want to have a minority opinion and be different than everyone else. They conformed and agreed with the majority opinion. The spiral of silence theory affects everyone everyday. All people admit to one time where they may have fallen into this spiral. It is a dangerous path because many people don’t speak their true opinions and the common opinion is never really known due to the spiral of silence. Therefore as a society we need to make more of an effort to not fall into this spiral and share our true opinions no matter if it’s the supposed more popular or less popular opinion.

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence

https://masscommtheory.com/theory-overviews/spiral-of-silence/

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2014/08/26/social-media-and-the-spiral-of-silence/