Mass Communication Application

Mass Communication Application

The theory I have chosen for my mass communication application is the Spiral of Silence theory of Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. She believes that certain people feel increasing pressure to keep silent and not voice their opinions when they feel like they are part of a marginalized or minority group. This is because they feel if they speak out then they will become isolated from the rest of the group and or ridiculed for their opinions and ideas. It basically refers to the idea that public opinion is what keeps people in line and leads to the basic following of crowds and groups. If people are afraid of being made fun of or isolated from everyone else, most if not all will conform to the ideas of the masses. It says that if they don’t stand firm in what they believe it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t believe in it anymore, they just tend to go with the crowds in fear. This allows the larger picture to seem as if everyone has a certain opinion from the outside when not everyone actually does on the inside.

Noelle-Neumann uses the example of elections as one way to show her theory. She explains that the most accurate way to predict the winning candidate is not to ask the people which candidate are they going to vote for, but rather who do they think is most likely to win. Even though the people say they are going to stick with their candidate, the assessment they have of the political climate tends to be reliable indicators of what will happen in an election. All the people in the middle ground that are not partial to either side or haven’t decided which side to vote for will most likely end up leaning toward the most foreseen winning candidate to avoid being isolated against the public opinion. This entire example however is backed up with the idea that the mass media plays a large and powerful role. Television seems to create, in many situations, a single point of view with constant repetition of its messages. This constant repetition can in-turn create a nation wide bias on the people’s judgment of prevailing opinions. The media not only tells the public what to think about, but also tells them what the rest of the public is thought to be thinking about. This shows how those who are trying to shape the public mood merely need to be willing and able to command media attention. That means that those with friends in high places or inherited wealth are given an extremely greater advantage over the average citizen trying to shape their own public opinion or mood.

This theory reminds me of a situation I was personally involved in a few years ago. My high school was putting on the musical “Les Miserables” and I was in the chorus while my older brother was the lead actor Jean Valjean. Every year it had been a tradition that our director would have a quick cameo in the musical. It usually consisted of him walking on the stage for a quick one liner or singing one line from a chorus number to get some laughs. Whatever the case was it was always just a short funny comedic entrance that everyone enjoyed and agreed with, but this year it was different. He decided that since this particular musical meant so much to him, he would have a more serious cameo that lasted longer in a scene. The scene he ended up choosing was near the end of the opera and actually was the last part of one of the main characters songs. The song was the piece sung by Jean Valjean called “Bring him home”. Now this immediately aroused some objections among the cast. This was because the particular song he had chosen was one of huge meaning not only to the entire musical itself but the actor who played the role of Jean Valjean, my brother, as well. Members of the cast believed it was unfair and inappropriate for the director to take such a big part in the musical from his lead actor. It seemed as if he was taking away some of the spotlight from the students who were in the play and turning it on himself. While these objections started to brew in their heads he gave a speech as to why he