Public Opinion

Edward Bernays’s article titled "Manipulating Public Opinion: the Why and the How" informs the reader "public opinion is subject to a variety of influences that develop and alter its views on nearly every phase of life today." He mentions that public opinion is expressed through a specific group of people, "at any given time toward a given object." Whether it is politics or fashion, everyone has their own ideas and values.

Public opinion nevertheless is manipulated in everyday life, whether it be in commercials or on TV. In advertisements alone, companies can come up with ways that make people want a certain object, and or have people react a certain way. Like in the PBS documentary Persuaders, a Tide commercial expressed the idea of the laundry detergent becoming a part of someone’s family. Of course that can never really happen, but companies want people to believe in a product enough to change their ways of living and their views on life. Companies voice their opinion about something, hoping people will do the same thing.

Walter Lippmann also brings up a good point in his article titled "The Disenchanted Man". He thinks that public opinion is "always and forever, by their very nature, an attempt to control the actions of others from the outside." Politicians all the time make us think about something in their perspective, and they want to change our opinions and control how we feel about things, right or wrong.