Public Opinion outline

What is Public Opinion?
- Public opinion, like public relations, is not easily to be explained.
Different difiniton of P.O :
--->Josed Fraft called P.O : " The unknown got to which moders burn incense"
---> Edward Bernays called it : " a term describing an ill-defined, mercurial, and changeable
of individual judgments"
---> Herman C. Boyle : " Public opinion is not the name of somthing, but the classification of a
number of somthing"
An opinion is the expression of an attitude on a particular topic
Attitudes ---> Opinions ---> Ations
Public opinion is the aggregate of many individual opnions on a particulr issue that affects a group pf people.
public opinion represents a consensus that begins with poeple's attitudes toward the issue in question.
What are attitudes?
- it was one generally assumed that attitudes are predispositions to think in a certain way about a certain topic.
- Research indicates that attitudes is the evaluations poeple make about specific problems or issues.
A. Attitudes are based on a number of characteristics :
1. personal
2. Cultural
3. Educational
4. Familial
5. Religions
6. Social Class
7. Race
- Attitudes and behaviors are situational, in other words, influenced by specific issues in specific situations
How are attitudes influenced?
- Attitudes are positive, negative, or nonexistent.
A. Theory of cognitive dissonance :
Individuals tends to avoide informaiton that is dossonant or opposed to their own points of view and tent to seek out information that is consonant with, or in support of their own attitudes.
B. Social judgement theory"
People may have a range of opinions on a certain subject, anchored by a clear attitude.

Motivating attitude change
- poeople are motivated by different factors, and no two poeple respond in exactly the same wat to the same set of circumstances. Each of us motivated by different drives and needs.

A. Maslow's Hierachy of needs theory :
It helps define the origins of motivations, which in turn helps explain attitude change
B. The five level of Maslow's hierachy
1. Pshychological needs : which is the lowest order and it explain the person's biological demands like food, water, sleep, health, bodily needs, exercise, rest and sex.
2. Safety needs : the second level, which is security, protection, c0mfort, and peance and derly
sourroundings.
3. Love needs : the third level, and it is about acceptance, belongings, love and affections and
membership in a group
4. Esteem : the fourth level, and it is about recongnition and prestige, confidence and
leadership opportunities, competence and strength, intelligence and success.
5. Self- actualization : the highest level. it is about becoming what one is capable of becoming
self-actualization involves self-fulfillement and achieving a goal for the purposes of
challenge and accomlishement.

C. Eleboration likelihood model :
it is another approach to motivating attitude to change
it posits that there are essentially two ways that poeple get persuaded :
---> When we are interested and focused enough on a message to take direct central route
to decision making
---> When we are nor particualrly engaged on a message and need to take a more peripheral
route

Power of persuasion :
- persuading is the goal of the vast majority of public relaitons programs.
- It means getting another person to do somthing through advice, reasoning or just plain arm-twisting.
A. Persuasion theory :
poeple may be of two minds in order to be persuaded to believe in a particular position or
take a specific action.
- systematic mode : referring to a person who has carefully considered an argument.
- Heuristic mode : referring to a person who is skimming the surface and not really focusing
on the intricacies of a particular position to catch the flaws, inconsistencicies or errors.
B. Evidence that will persuade :
1. Facts
2. Emotions
3. Personalizing
4, Appealing to you

Influencing public opinion :
Public opinion is a lot easier to mesure than it is to influence.

1. Opinion is highly sensitive to important events
2. opinion is generally determined more by events than by words, unless those words are themselves interpreted as an event.
3. at critical times, poeple become more sensitve to the adequacy of their leadership.
4. once self-interest is involved, opinions are slow to change.
5. poeple have more opinions and are able to form opinions more easily on goals than on methods to reach those goals.
6. by and large, if poeple in a democracy are provided with educational opportunities and ready access to information, public opinion reveals a hardheaded common sense.

Managing reputation

Reputation is present throughout our lives
It is how we choose business partners, which dentist or mechanic to visit...