In order to explain the concept and meaning of the term "public opinion",
one has to first have an understanding of the words "public", and
"opinion". In the most prevalent and common meaning of the word, the
term "public" refers to a population or segments of a population of
people.
However, noted scholars have put further meanings forth. Habermas (1962) put
forth three meanings of public. The first deals with the legal sense of "public",
which emphasizes the etymological aspect of its openness; it is open to everyone,
as distinguished from the private, which is set aside as one's own.
The second meaning expresses some involvement of the state, such as public interests.
This definition deals with issues that concern all within a particular state,
i.e. the general welfare. This is the case where the population has surrendered
its sovereignty to the state, and thus the opinions of the ruling elite often
are "synonymous" with that of the population.
The third meaning of "public" can be described as social-psychological.
An individual cannot live by himself, and needs to turn to others for approval,
comfort, intimacy and a sense of collectivity. Thus this forces him to turn
to the "public", the people around him who provide a source of affirmation
and popularity.
Opinion is defined by Plato as something "more obscure than knowledge,
but clearer than ignorance". It is not completely worthless in this respect,
but rather takes the middle position between definite knowledge and complete
ignorance. Kant defined it as "insufficient judgement, subjectively as
well as objectively" (Kant, 1893). "Opinion" may be considered
the unified agreement of a population or a particular segment of the population,
or "a synonym for the expression of something regarded as acceptable, thereby
hinting at the element of consensus or agreement" (Noelle-Neumann, 1984).
Given the above definitions and meanings of the words "public" and
"opinion", it is then possible to formulate a definition of the term
in question. Public opinion refers to the collective expressions of opinions
of many individuals; and the latter share common aims, needs and interests.
It must be mentioned that these opinions should be that the individual could
express them in public without isolating or alienating oneself.
An understanding of the nature of public opinion is essential if one is to understand
the relation it has with public relations. Public opinion is highly sensitive
to events, it is highly reactive and subjective. As it is based on the collective
opinions of a large number of people, a population, its is thus vulnerable to
the whims and fancies of the population. For the sake of simplicity, the lack
of competence to make educated and rational judgements, the potential susceptibility
of the public to the tyranny of the majority, to propaganda or mass persuasion,
and to domination by elite minorities makes the concept of public opinion and
the opinions itself hard to define.
The reactive nature of public relations are triggered by significant events
that happen, and if issues that are important are breached, it may cause a big
change in public opinion and it may swing public opinion very quickly. This
tendency is attributable to the fact that the public tends to form opinions
and stereotypes based on what they feel and interpret, and not necessarily on
what they know for certain. Lippman states this point astutely; "that for
the most part we do not see first then define; we define first then see".
The external media may stress and give coverage to certain events, but eventually
it is the public that responds by interpreting the event according to their
own socio-cultural conditioning and context. This subjective interpretation
of events give public a "swinging" mood, a sense of unpredictability.
Edward Stan defined public relations as "a planned effort to influence
opinion through acceptable performance and two-way communication". Steinberg
puts it as "public relations is that specific operating philosophy by which
management sets up policies designed to serve both in the company's and public
interest…(the) long-range carefully nurtured effort to develop and maintain
a strong, resilient and positive consensus from all of the publics upon whom
the activities of the institutions impinge".
This nature of public opinion is the basis for the practice and profession of
public relations. Part of any public relation mission should and must involve
influencing public opinion. As such the three main objectives concerning public
relations all involve public opinion.
1. The maintenance of favorable opinion amongst those public that already have
a good opinion of the issue/company/organization.
2. The creation of opinion where one does not already exist, or where it is
latent, by creating awareness.
3. To neutralize or to weaken hostile opinions of the organization.
An organization should keep favorable publics by continuing to improve and
maintain its image. Examples of these publics should include employees of a
firm, or people within a community inside the organization's sphere of influence.
Also, public relations seek to create awareness of an organization and the things
that concern it. It publicizes its involvement and happenings so that an uninformed
public may form an opinion, preferably favorable, about it and then it can work
on improving that opinion. Its strives to create positive opinion, and where
latent opinions are probable, it serves to bring them out and strengthen them.
Lastly, it seeks to identify hostile opinion and neutralize it by taking positive
action. It may also lessen hostile opinions, by emphasizing mutually beneficial
aspects of the organization and the public.
The most basic way and method that public relations firms seek to improve public
relations, common in all three objectives above, is to influence public opinion
by enhancing an organization's prestige, by representing its desirable qualities
and effective performance.
It must be stressed that public relations is essentially a two-way communication
process whereby the emphasis is placed on communicating the opinions of the
relevant publics to the management and thus deciding on the action to take to
conform to these public opinions. The primary aim of public relations is to
sensitize the organizations to public images and expectations and opinions.
2) The World Wide Web (WWW), with its boundless and timeless nature, is ideal
for publicizing an organization. It is inexpensive, and anyone can be able to
tap it.
For several decades, print, radio and television have been the three principal
mass market media that organizations use to reach their public and their consumers
now, media gurus have been calling the WWW the fourth mass medium. It is brimming
with potential because it is inexpensive, it is often more immediate and it
is interactive.
Unlike newspapers, magazines, or most television programs, web pages can be
updated instantly to offer new information in seconds. Some web marketers see
the relationship between the speed with which customers get purchasing and the
faster purchasing decisions they make this conclusion is based on research studies
that indicate most web users visit homepages to gather product information.
Every element on a web page that consumers activate with a mouse click or a
key press offers interactivity. Anyone who has surfed the web has used text
buttons, text links, button links, e-mail links and fill-out forms, for example.
Organizations gain from the exchange when customers use such links and forms
to interact with businesses and and even participate in live internet events.
In the short time that television news and newspapers have experimented with
the web, they have discovered a huge response on their web sites from audiences
eager to contribute response to news events. Although newspapers are not technically
telemarketers, their new web outlets are valuable to organizations because of
the high traffic nature of news sites. For example, placing advertisements on
such sites could greatly increase an organization's publicity.
An online marketing campaign requires identifying a target market, identifying
where the target market can be found on the internet, and identifying a message
and events that you can use to deliver that message to the market. Like any
media campaign, an online marketing campaign requires establishing campaign
goals and strategic planning to deliver a message several times to the same
people. Examples of campaign goals might include an increase in web traffic
and in brand awareness. Marketing vehicles that deliver the message can overlap.
For example, you can simultaneously use banner ads, publicity, and traditional
direct mail to deliver a message to the same market, and boost the publicity
drive of the organisation.
Bibliography
1. Dominck, J.R. (1996). The Dynamics of Mass Communication. NY: McGraw-Hill
2. Stan, E. (1968). What you should know about Public Relations. NY:Ocean
3. Steinberg, C.S. (1958) The Mass Communicators: Public Relations, Public opinion
and the Mass Media. NY:Harper
4. Noelle-Neumann, E. (1984). Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion, our Social
Skin. University of Chicago Press.
5. Jo Fahey, M. (1998) Web Advertising and Marketing by Design. Microsoft Press.