Term
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Definition
| people who believe that they hold a minority viewpoint on a public issue will remain in the background where their communication will be restrained; those who believe that they hold a majority viewpoint will be more encouraged to speak |
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Term
| Asch conformity experiment |
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Definition
| a panel of 6 men are in a room (5 are researchers and one is the experiment) and they are shown a picture with lines and they have to tell the instructor which line is longer. The 5 researchers tell the instructor the wrong answer on purpose to see if the subject will go along with the group or actually state the right answer... the subjects always go along with the group even though they know it is the wrong answer in fear of being isolated. |
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Term
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Definition
-Society threatens deviant individuals with isolation; fear of isolation is pervasive
-fear of isolation causes individuals to try to assess the climate of opinion at all times
-Public behavior is affected by public opinion assessment |
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Term
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Definition
attitudes and behaviors expressed in public to avoid isolation
How do we know it?
-word of mouth, news, networking sites, political, opinion polls, stats |
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Term
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Definition
personal estimation of the strength of opposing sides on a public issue
(they are able to do this by listening to the views of others and incorporating that knowledge into their own viewpoints) |
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Term
| Quasi-statistical sense example |
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Definition
| Carol's quasi statistical sense makes her believe that she is the only person at her breakfast table who opposes spanking. she can see that she is vastly outnumbered on the topic and therefore is able to access the local public opinion on the subject |
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Term
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Definition
mistaken observation of how most people feel.
Ex- as a college student, you hear around campus that people are against sopa, but in reality, the public opinion is actually for sopa, just college students aren't |
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Term
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Definition
the belief that media is everywhere, b/c it is everywhere, they are relied on when people seek out information.
Ex- Nick, a member of Carol's table discussion, is quick to point out the recent surveys done in the state about perceptions of spanking. He has the source immediately at hand. And as the media strive for agreement from the majority of the public, they will be everywhere. |
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Term
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Definition
| the belief that all media are similar in attitudes, beliefs, and values. It is produced from the tendency for newspeople to confirm their own thoughts and opinions, making it look as if those opinions were emanating from the public. |
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Term
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Definition
| groups at the end of the spiral of silence process that are willing to speak out at any cost. |
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