Do Political Elite and Media Manipulate Public Opinion - Essay Example

Student’s Name] [Instructor’s Name] [Class] The Construction of Public Opinion Introduction Public opinion connects directly with what a civilization or a society considers as acceptable and what it considers as being unacceptable. While Europe and the western world today can claim to be a bastion of culture, liberty and revolutionary ideas, there was a time when the situation was quite different. Less than a hundred years ago, quite a lot of people in some western countries did not think that women were eligible to vote. Where there are topless beaches, the idea of a woman showing her knee was taken as shameless. Where there is talk of peace and tolerance, innocents were burnt at the stake as witches. Clearly, there are a number of factors involved in making and changing public opinions. Time does play a part but such changes normally do not come of their own accord. There are several forces such as political influences, technological innovations, economic changes, legal demands, the influence of the media and other catalysts which drive how a public opinion about an issue can be driven in one direction or another to demand action from the people at large (Hill, 2003). An analysis of these forces therefore is very important for all students of sociology, political science, history as well as human behaviour since an understanding of these forces can lead to an understanding of how a change in society can be created. In many ways, the forces mentioned above are connected with each other and certain drivers of social change overlap amongst the given factors. For example, the media is one source of social awareness which overlaps with technology and with the economy since individuals which are socially better off may have access to various types of media such as the internet and foreign news sources while those in a lower stratum of society may not be aware of such avenues of getting of information (Baldock, 2004). Therefore, it is better if an analysis is made individually for these factors to show they can convert issues into social problem. Political Influences Perhaps the easiest way today to guide public opinion on a given social problem is to bring it into politics and it can easily be used to distract the public from other issues which might be more pertinent or important. For example, the war on terrorism is a prime situation where the attention of the media, the newspapers, public opinion as well as private discussion were all diverted towards the topic and other problems like the genocide in Sudan, the rising poverty levels of the world and the problem of the environmental degradation of the planet due to human activity can be pushed under the carpet. This situation, If not permanently true, was at least very true for the period which followed the September 11 attacks on America. Hurricane Katrina The case of Hurricane Katrina was one such situation where political influences were important in making the issue of the rehabilitation a social problem for all of America. Gerson (2006) reports that: “Hurricane Katrina revealed a kind of persistent poverty that leaves many Americans with no connection to, or stake in, the American economy. It also revealed a political class in Washington, in both parties, that seems to view this as an unfortunate fact of life, rather than a scandal that must eventually be addressed (Gerson, 2006, Pg. 42).” Undoubtedly, politics played a huge part in how, when and where the victims of the hurricane were provided medical and financial assistance. Similarly, politics guided public opinion about how the victims were being treated and handled in various camps (Gerson, 2006). Undeniably, many errors were committed in handling the situation and the democrats were quick to call on the incompetence of the government which simply could not handle the situation. The problems as created by the flight of a great number of refugees to neighbouring states and the development of a sustainable program to assist presently suffering individuals as well as to protect Americans from future problems are indeed social issues. However, the creation of a public opinion as to how the government handled the issue was certainly a creation of the politicians and their statements which had one spin or another to show the situation in different lights. Fabrications A deeper analysis of the situation was given by Dr. Michael Niman who is a professor of journalism at the Buffalo State College, New York. He suggests that the failure of the government was simply covered up using the media for the eventual end of making profits. He says that: “Remember all those stories of gang violence, murder, and rape in the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center? They were, but for one or two exceptions, completely fictional. And for the first time since the Civil War we all stood by dumbfounded as an entire American city was illegally put under military control -ostensibly to hold the cannibals at bay (Niman, 2005, Pg. 11).” Similar subjects can be found in the issues of legalised abortion, stricter gun controls and same sex marriage which are political issues with strong personal and public opinions in the United States (Baldock, 2004). Clearly, these were not problems per se when America was founded but have come to the surface in recent years when awareness about the issue was raised and people began to question things as they were. Public opinion matters a lot when politics are concerned and the decisions to convert an issue (real or otherwise) into a social problem that is begging for a solution can often be up to the politicians of a country (Hill, 2003). Economic Influences The study of society can not be separated from how the changes in the economy affect society. During the time of an economic boom a country faces different social issues as compared to when it is going through a comparative state of depression (Baldock, 2004). For example, the idea of the welfare state and the idea of state provided funding for some people during the times of high unemployment is quickly raised in the public mind as a social problem. On the other hand, during a state of near full employment, this does not seem like a very important issue for the majority. Similarly, when a company like Enron defrauds its investors and shareholders it becomes an important social issue since many thousands of individuals had invested in the stocks of this company. Had there been one or two individuals it probably would not have even made an acceptable story for the media. There were many people who were seeking answers as to what happened to their money and what happened to their retirement fund and no one had any clear answers to their questions. Neylan (2005) reports that: “In formulating social policy the administrative arm of government relies heavily on number-based significations of knowledge, such as needs indicators and performance measures. Relying on numbers increases administrators' confidence in their decisions and shifts responsibility for error away from the decision-maker and towards the numbers (Neylan, 2005, Pg. 23).” Pointing to One Person The numbers game for public opinion in economic terms is very important simply because a fraud of a few dollars is considered nothing more than street crime while a white collar criminal that makes off with billions is headline news indeed. The actions taken by the government after the economic scandals of Enron and other companies clearly show that the government did consider it to be a social problem which clearly needed active help and control. The role of the media in relation to which numbers are highlighted and which numbers are not, is extremely important in such cases. One director of a company who makes off with a billion dollars is a vicious criminal while the collective influence of white collar crime is rather vague and difficult to understand for the media. Spinning and the Media The media can certainly spin a story and put a shine on even the darkest spots of an incident. One such example is the cooperation which German businesses gave to the Nazi regime before and during the Second World War. While suspicions of German businesses cooperating with the Nazis have been voiced for many years, it was only after declassification of files and the fall of the Berlin Wall that the full extent of the cooperation was made public knowledge (Ford, 2001). In fact, some German businesses were in the process of claiming sympathies from the public for by spinning their role in the Nazi era while the reality of the situation was far from making their case a sympathetic one. Bertelsmann Spins History For example, the case of German media giant, Bertelsmann is one situation which demands a close examination. Bertelsmann claimed that it was shut down by the Nazi government in 1944 and created a legend of Nazi resistance which led to it being granted an operational license in the years after the war. However, as reported by the BBC, it was shut down due to the paper shortages created by the war and not their defiance to the Nazis (BBC, 2002). In fact, the reality was quite different since Bertelsmann made huge profits by collaborating with the Germans at the time and published volumes of anti-Semitic texts during the Nazi era. Moreover, those profits were made using Jewish slave labor in Latvia and Lithuania which took the company from a small school and religious books publisher to one of the media giants in the modern world. The company targeted the youth market with its publication of The Christmas Book of the Hitler Youth which multiplied its sales by a factor of twenty (BBC, 2002). Additionally, Heinrich Mohm, who was the head of the company at the time made substantial donations to the SS funds and had close links with the propaganda ministry and won contracts for more than 19 million books which were published during the war. However, nothing is more interesting than the fact that once these facts were made public by the fact finding commission, the company immediately issued an apology for its activities during the war and the falsification of its own history (BBC, 2002). The chairperson of the group, Gunther Thielen, immediately released a statement which said that, ‘"I would like to express our sincere regret for the inaccuracies the Commission has uncovered in our previous corporate history of the World War Two era as well as for the wartime activities that have been brought to light. (BBC, 2002, Pg. 1)". Not surprisingly, he is not alone in the apology and more than 6,000 German companies who have operated since the Nazi era are taking part in the creation of a $5 billion fund which is supposed to compensate the hundreds of thousands of Nazi slave laborers. A new story is spun for the public and every thing goes on with business as usual. Tricking the Eye The media can also drive public opinion by focusing on one problem more than the other even if the problem does not cost society as much. Using an example from the UK, the crime of burglary, which comes with severe penalties and the cost of considerable government officials’ time, cost the country only £2.7bn in 2000. On the other hand, the cost of white collar crime such as avoiding taxes by paying in cash or taking things from the workplace cost the economy a grand total of £13.8bn (BBC, 2003). However, even though white collar crime may be detected more often than theft, the focus on a bank robbery or a heist is much more evident in the media coverage provided to it in relation to the cost it has on society (BBC, 2003). In this case, the crime may be detected and may even be confessed under the condition of anonymity, but nothing much can be done to bring the individuals to justice. Bank robbers and the like make interesting newspaper stories and get good media coverage, the ones who pay cash to avoid tax can hardly ever hope to make the nine O’clock news. Conclusions Any given issue can be considered a social problem if there are enough people talking about it, enough media personalities pushing the line on it and enough academics related persons discussing it at conferences and seminars. Does that make the issue important for society at large? I do not think that it does because we really can not know if something is important for society we can only know what is important for us or perhaps our loved ones. Even then such an idea can be the creation of the media or the politicians and other social factors which may make the idea seem important or not. It is therefore far more important to trust the word of researchers in the field; the people who are actually conducting active studies on society and the social setup which we all live in. For example, a media crusader for scientology can not do much towards making scientology and issue for the general public, but if a respected researcher reports that scientology or other new age religions are having an effect on the fabric of society then it is more plausible that the issue really is there. Of course our reaction to the study might be quite different as compared to how we would react to the statements of an actor who believes in scientology since the person who comes from academia can be expected to know a lot more about the functioning of society. Overall, it seems that many social problems and matters of public opinion seem to be a creation of the information we receive rather than actual problems faced by society. For example, the situation of the homeless is seen so often and they are so easily spotted in society that it does not remain a problem to be discussed at any length in the media. Paedophilia or any other serious crime such as hate related murder is certainly big news and whatever becomes the ‘hot topic’ for the media becomes a huge social issue for the country as a whole. Essentially, the way we are presented information and the things which are highlighted for us are social issues while other problems remain the facts of life about which nothing can be done. Public opinion does matter since it drives our society and civilisation towards certain goals which we collectively seek to achieve. However, it is a very scary thought to know that public opinion can be managed, diverted or even created out of nothing at all to make the public focus on certain issues while completely avoiding others. Works Cited Baldock, J. 2004, Social Policy, OUP. BBC. 2003, ‘White collar crime sweeps Britain’, [Online] Available at: BBC.co.uk, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3102800.stm BBC. 2002, ‘Bertelsmann admits Nazi past’, [Online] Available at: BBC.co.uk, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2308415.stm Ford, P. 2001, ‘Europe's halting path to resolve Nazi era’, Christian Science Monitor, 93(132): 1-12. Gerson, M. 2006, ‘A New Social Gospel’, Newsweek, 148(20): 40-43. Hill, M. 2003. Understanding Social Policy, Blackwell. Neylan, J, 2005, ‘Quantifying Social Entities: An Historical-Sociological Critique’, Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 32(4): 23-40. Niman, M. 2005, ‘Katrina’s America: Failure, Racism, and Profiteering’, Humanist, 65(6): 11-15. Read More