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Formulation of Public Opinion

The Impact of Interest Groups on the Formulation of Public Opinion


In order to understand and appreciate the impact of competing and conflicting interest groups on the formation of public opinion, it is first necessary to accept that the public, in general, has a low information threshold when it comes to topics of public interest. While there does exist informed individuals who follow and understand the important social, economic and cultural issues, for the greater part, most citizens pay little attention to the same, and when asked, pull their preferences off the tops of their heads (Claassen and Highton, 410). Since empowerment for interest groups comes from it (i.e. politicians will not be re-elected without public support), there must, therefore, be some mechanism in place for these groups to assess and access public opinion. Given the citizenry's low information threshold, what appears to be public opinion can only be the cultivation, crystallization and communication of individual preferences into one collective mass by special interest groups who provide and control the flow of necessary information in accordance with agenda setting theory.

The strength of an individual's interests and attitudes on the one hand and their policy preferences on the other depends in a large part on the level of information that they possess (Claassen and Highton, 411). Certainly, an informed citizen is a better one when considering the theory and underpinning of the democratic process, as it is understood in this country today (Delli Carpini and Keeter, 1996, 272). Yet, study after study demonstrates that the majority does not possess the level of information necessary to properly evaluate and assess important political, social and economic issues (Claassen and Highton, 410).

Unquestionably, though, public opinion does exist on issues of varying importance. Once information is made accessible, public debate on the issues can begin. It is through the mechanism of public debate that the less informed receive the information that, at least in the short term, allows them to reach par with the better informed on a particular issue (Claassen and Highton, 410). Heightened levels of information from the media, political groups or even single interest groups should induce and entice those who pay less attention to the issues to become better informed and more able to come to beliefs that can be pulled collectively into what is know as public opinion.

Special interest groups bring issues to the public attention through a mechanism known as agenda setting. According to agenda setting theory, which was developed by Professor Maxwell McCombs and Professor Donald Shaw in a 1968 study at Chapel Hill, Mass media helps to create public opinion by highlighting specific issues. In studying media coverage of political campaigns, McCombs and Shaw found that the main effect of the news media was not to tell the public what to thing but what to think about (McCombs). In this way, mass media shapes peoples' minds and allows them to attach importance to specific news stories. According to the agenda cutting, theory, the media tends to be selective with respect to the stories that it covers and so much of reality is not represented in it. The public judges those stories or items not perceived to be newsworthy by the media irrelevant (McCombs).

In their study, McCombs and Shaw also developed the theory of media surfing. The media follows trends and thus "surfs" from topic to topic. Because of media surfing, it is possible to predict media coverage of news items in general and in the future as well as those items the media no longer deems to be of interest. This effect allows special interest groups to place or present to the public the right stories at the right time (McCombs).

Clearly, in order to form its opinion, the public must have access to information on political, social and economic issues. In our society, special interest groups, in order to stay in power, take the responsibility of controlling the flow of information to the public by setting the public debate through an agenda. Since the public will disregard news items not covered in the press, which itself, reports items according to trends, it is possible for special interest groups to place information in the right time in the right way. In this manner, the interest groups control, cultivate and crystallize public opinion.



Works Cited

Claassen, Ryan L., and Benjamin Highton. "Does Policy Debate Reduce Information Effects in Public Opinion? Analyzing the Evolution of Public Opinion on Health Care." The Journal of Politics 68 (2006): 410-420.
McCombs, Maxwell. Media Tenor. 2007. 26 Feb. 2007 <http://www.mediatenor.com/smi_AS_approach.php#AgendaSettingApproach>.

Posted by: Anastasia T. Ray

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