Public Opinion (1946)

in any week of the year in any part of the country you can see public opinion at work about all these men and women who make up a public we notice two things there demands for action are discussed and debated and they feel themselves to be members of a group not just every collection is a group here we have a lot of people each looking out for himself since they don't feel act like a group they are not a public these people do feel themselves to be members of a group and they are making demands for collective action but they're not a public either because their demands are not debatable no one is permitted to question them a group of this kind we call a crowd what a crowd feels and believes is not public opinion but crowd sentiment and when a cloud goes in for collective action we call it a mob a mob is not a public to be a public people must not only feel themselves to be members of a group they must also be willing to discuss and debate their demands for collective action collective action through public opinion built this grand new water plant in Centreville let's go back and see how it all came about we'll see public opinion growing from realizing that something was wrong through people's explanations of what the trouble was through the remedies they suggested for solving it through further debate - final action and we shall see the entire public opinion process influenced by things that happen to people and by the kind of people they were to begin with different members of the public had a variety of experiences which first brought about the feeling of unrest that started off the public opinion process let us look in on a public meeting in Centreville where some of these experiences were being discussed go on mrs. celebratory a Polliwog you say yes it was for sure a Polliwog I was getting a drink of water when out of the tap comes the Taliban it is not good that water it certainly is not good enough by just last evening I had some greenfield people in to dinner and one of my most important guest just couldn't drink the water because it to its smell it's hitting us in our private lives and in business take mr. Smith down at the bottling plant he tells me that the water is spoiling his products so badly he may have to close down the plant something Centreville citizens were led by these and other experiences to feel it was up to them to analyze their water problem and solve it citizen committees asked expert witnesses to testify please go ahead dr. Johnston you say we can expect many conflicting explanations and recommendations yes these stories in today's times are an example this group is certain your town needs a new water system and this group is equally certain a few plumbing repairs will do the trick and what is your opinion dr. Johnston well from my investigation I'm sure the trouble is much more deep-seated than the state of Mississauga Tory's pipes the hospital pipes are as clean as they can be and yet as you know a hospital oils every drop of its drinking water as I see it there's only one intelligent thing the central public can do finance a new water system by voting a bond issue when public opinion was forming on the bond issue question in Centreville and people debated the pros and cons their positions depended not only on their experiences with the water but also on their predispositions the attitudes and prejudices they had prior to the water issue there are various ways of getting at Centreville predispositions to vote bond issues there were the established organizations with definite policies regarding the spending of public funds and in the recent school bond election voters had shown their predispositions toward bond issues the wealthiest districts where people are especially aware of property taxes showed a small majority in favor in middle income neighborhoods a larger majority favored the issue and in low-income neighborhoods where most renters are not aware of paying property taxes a very large majority favored the issue of school bonds as santervas public debated though they were influenced by the press the radio and other forms of communication this stream of communication can be carefully analyzed to discover what contribution the radio and the newspapers made to the public opinion process we can tabulate the number of times the water issue was referred to at all in Centreville z' press and radio we could go a step further and classify each of these references into favorable and unfavorable we could go even beyond that and classify a newspaper and radio references to the dispute according to some standard such as factual accuracy we could also find out if the local news reporting presented only one side of the story that is if it contained propaganda at various times during the water controversy we could have measured Centreville x' public opinion in order to discover what action was likely to result one way of measuring public opinion is by interviews brief interviews are called polls it is not necessary to interview everybody a few people are carefully selected as samples of the important groups of the general public by interviewing them and we can usually opinion quite up and in planning the interviews we would remember that members of a community's public don't live only in the town itself they may live outside its geographical boundaries piñon process the widest measure of public opinion is an election like the bond election which Centreville finally held an election is an opinion census it gives us a chance to study the opinion of every individual member of the public but if that opinion is to be enlightened people should be able to get at the facts to read the excellent report submitted by dr. Johnston this water report makes it perfectly clear that the town's water system has become antiquated and run down to the point where it is not only a public nuisance but a public health danger for public opinion to be enlightened press and radio reporting should be balanced there should be sources of information with opposing points of view available in every community the environment should make possible for the supply of available information to be critically sifted in public and private discussion to be critically sifted by citizens who examine competent witnesses and get expert opinions an enlightened public opinion depends also upon whether members of the public can overcome their prejudices and learn to think objectively as Washington said referring to public opinion in his farewell address in proportion as the structure of government gives force to public opinion it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened it is no less true today that a People's Government can be wise if public opinion is enlightened