Post #8 EOTO: Spiral of Silence

   

  In class, my group was assigned to research theories that are prevalent in the world today especially in the media. The theory that I was tasked with teaching the class with was Spiral of Silence. Before i researched this theory I had no idea what it meant but the more I learned about the spiral of silence  the more I realized I knew exactly what this was I just didn’t know that there was a actual term for it. By definition the spiral of silence is “the theory that people’s willingness to express their opinions on controversial public issues is affected by their largely unconscious perception of those opinions as being either popular or unpopular.” The origins of this theory was developed by German survey and communication researcher Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann starting in the 1960’s and 70’s, this theory was tested during the 1965 German federal election campaign. Some key elements to note for the spiral of silence is that people have unconscious social isolation through behavior such as criticizing someone, turning away from someone, scowling at someone, laughing at someone, etc. There are three parts to this theory. 1. avoiding isolation this means to avoid sharing controversial opinions that would attract criticism. 2. Attract Approval meaning there are also people on the opposite side of this theory that voice views fearlessly and at times vociferously. 3. The Spiral: the literal spiral is the dominant camp becoming ever louder and more self-confident while the other camp becomes increasingly silent.

  The implications of the Spiral of Silence can affect all ages, races, sexualities, and social class status. In my personal opinion I see this theory prevalent in people around my age, mid teens to mid twenties because we are just starting to form our own opinions about life but we are also just trying to fit in so sometimes one of these elements may have to be sacrificed. An example of this comes from a childhood movie of mine that a lot of people my age remember called High School Musical. In this movie there is a song called “Stick to the Status Quo” a lot of kids my age can relate to this song because it talks about playing it safe and not sticking out when you are different from your peers or have an unpopular opinion. We as kids just want to survive in the social world but sometimes giving into the Spiral of Silence also known as the status quo can have some serious implications. Theses implications happen with a series of steps. 1. Increased exposure of an issue or topic leads the public to believe it to be the majority. 2. Perceived minority then faces the threat and fear of isolation from society unless they conform. 3. As the opinion gains momentum, the perceived minority falls deeper into their silence. 4. Perceived minority no longer  speaks out, either by presenting an image of agreement or actually conforming, and the opinion of the perceived majority ultimately becomes a social norm. This can have a major impact on my generation because of social media people my age won’t feel the need to go searching for information. They can just look at a post, tweet, or comment of a person they admire and/or want to be friends with and become a “yes man” agreeable to the others opinions and eventually they start believing it on their own. What we can do to combat this issue is to make sure we all do our own research before we make any concrete opinions and remind ourself that popularity doesn’t equate to truth.

Video to explain Spiral of Silence