Public Opinion

Lippman has a very lucid analysis of the "pseudo-environment" in which we live most of our lives (and apparently they did to some significant degree even in 1947), and particular on how propaganda works on a public: governments, media entities, etc, use symbols which are charged with feeling to motivate mass action. Lippmann recognises this as a serious problem for democratic societies, and asserts “democracy in its original form never seriously faced the problem which arises because the pictures inside people's heads do not automatically correspond with the world outside”. He proposes in the latter parts of a book (and here I am greatly oversimplifying) a system by which objective information can be published, which can be used by the media to keep governments honest, and can be used by interested members of the public to keep both government and media honest in turn. Well worth a read, simply because he is a messenger from outside of our present moment. I enjoyed the first half of the book because of Lippman's ability to articulate problems that I recognised in our own day. However, the latter part of the book was a bit deflating, because we have (I think) everything Lippmann imagined to collect and publish hard data--and are governments and media even one jot more honest than they were just after WWII?

A classic that must be read again from time to time to check how everything is changing in media and audiences