Spiral of Silence and Civic Engagement

Hauser did a nice job charting a few of the obstacles democracy and civic engagement. His discussion of public opinion polls in particular introduces some other potential barriers to a vibrant rhetorical democracy. I’d like to briefly discuss a theory of mass communication called “spiral of silence” and discuss why it might mean trouble for civic engagement.

Noelle-Neumann (1974) argued that human beings are fearful of isolation and often doubt their own capacity for judgment. If we accept that these particular brands of fear and doubt are indeed common to many people, then there are some serious obstacles to rhetorical democracy and civic engagement that need to be considered. Because expressing an unpopular opinion could lead to censure, ostracism, isolation, etc., it makes sense that human beings would try to gauge public opinion about political/social issues before expressing their own beliefs. Spiral of silence theory therefore contends that willingness to expose one’s views is greater if a person “believes his own view is, and will be, the dominating one or (though not dominating now) is becoming more widespread” (p. 45). This means that minority opinions can be effectively silenced or self-censored due to social pressures alone. When fewer minority opinions are introduced to the public dialogue, even fewer people will speak their opinions, as they will believe themselves to be even further removed from the mainstream beliefs on an issue. This is where the phrase “spiral of silence” originates.

In today’s society, people are likely to get most of their information about public opinion from the mass media. Public opinion polls as they appear in newspapers and 24 hour cable news stations are the most obvious example of how people learn how their ideas fit in with the rest of the public’s. If someone learns that only 33 percent of the American public agrees with them about the fantastic job President Bush is doing, they may choose to keep their opinions hidden so they don’t risk being labeled a deviant. Political pundits and editorial cartoons are a few other media sources from which people can attain this same information about public opinion.

Of course, it’s not a very original move to blame the media for the problems in our society. And moreover, it would be foolish to suggest that pundits or public opinion polls be censored in any way – to do so would be to violate both of Hauser’s requirements for a rhetorical democracy (publicity and free speech). Maybe more background on Spiral of Silence is necessary to help answer this question, but does anybody else believe that a fear of isolation and an inherent doubt in one’s own capacity for judgment could be problems for a rhetorical democracy?