Public opinion rules people examples. The concept of public opinion. Object and subject of public opinion. What role does it play in society

Introduction

1.2 Functions of public opinion

1.3 Public relations

Chapter 2. The dynamics of the development of public opinion under various political regimes

2.1 Formation of public opinion in a totalitarian and authoritarian regime

2.2 Democratic regime

2.3 Public opinion in contemporary Russia

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The phrase "public opinion" has been around for a long time. It is often referred to by politicians, journalists, parliamentarians, even old women representing the public of a residential building. However, in sociology there is hardly another category whose content would be so vague, complex and would cause such heated debate. The phenomenon of "public opinion" is one of those social phenomena that have attracted the attention of thinkers since ancient times. The power of public opinion, its active influence on the activities of the subjects of the historical process has always been recognized. N. Machiavelli in his work "The Sovereign" specifically pointed out the exceptional importance of this phenomenon. In the sense in which this category is used by us, it is found in the English statesman and writer John Salisbury. The origin of this phrase is Anglo-Saxon. And it appeared in England in the second half of the 12th century, or rather, in the speech of Salisbury in 1159. From England, this term came to other countries, and at the end of the 18th century. became generally accepted. The great philosopher G.V.F. did not bypass this phenomenon with his attention. Hegel. He singled out a number of structural elements in it: the conditions of existence; object (content); carrier; the nature of the judgment, the speaker; the ratio of "universal" and "special" opinions, the combination and opposition of truth and falsehood. Public opinion and public consciousness are in complex connections and relationships. Public consciousness, according to many scientists, is a set of theories, ideas, views that reflect real social life, the historical process. They are generated by certain material conditions of people's lives. The structure of social consciousness is extremely complex. It has several forms. Most often, such forms are political ideas, legal consciousness, morality, science, art, religion, philosophy, ecology, economics, etc. These forms differ from each other in the way they reflect reality, in the peculiarities of their development, etc., but, above all, in their subject matter. Each form of consciousness reflects certain side reality: morality, for example, deals with the norms of human behavior in society, the principles that regulate it, science examines the laws of nature and society, political ideology deals with political relations (state, class, national, etc.).

Public opinion cannot be identified with any form of public consciousness. The subject of public opinion cannot be "squeezed" into the framework of any one form, tick how public opinion can be formulated on issues of politics or law, morality or art, religion or science, etc. Thus, public opinion is the attitude of social communities to the problems of public life, manifested first in emotions and judgments, and then in actions. Differs in relative prevalence, intensity, reliability and stability. These qualities largely depend on the object and subject of public opinion. The object of public opinion is specific phenomena or topics on which the point of view of an individual, group or the wider public is expressed or can be expressed. An infinite variety of events, facts, phenomena of public life, i.e. the historical process of the development of society, gives rise to the diversity of human judgments. As a result, public opinion in its content turns out to be as complex as life itself. The object of this phenomenon is the process of material production, and events in the sphere of the spiritual life of society, and the behavior of fans at the stadium, the audience in the theater, political leaders, etc.

The relevance of this topic is beyond doubt, so the purpose of this work is to study the process of formation of public opinion and the dynamics of its development under various political regimes.

Chapter 1. Public opinion: mechanism of formation, functions, problems of study

1.1 Structure, essence and content of public opinion

When does public opinion arise? What factors determine its appearance and functioning? According to most scientists involved in the study of this phenomenon, there are several such factors, but the most important are the social interests of people.

Public opinion is formed where and when a problem of great practical importance, affecting the essential interests of people (economic, political, spiritual) is put up for discussion by the people. This is the first condition for the formation of public opinion. A well-known fact such as "Horses eat oats" or "Volga flows into the Caspian Sea" or a message that "I have just come from the theater" and "twice two is four" will not cause much discussion. We are simply stating the obvious. A similar state of affairs can be observed in the sphere of public consciousness. Public opinion most often concerns issues related to politics, economics, law, morality or art, where there is more contentious and affecting the interests of people. The subject of public consideration is most often those forms of social consciousness, those issues that imply differences in assessments, characteristics, i.e. contain a moment of controversy. This is the second condition for the emergence of public opinion. This problem or question should be debatable. Even a metaphysical approach to the problem under discussion on the principle of "yes or no" gives rise to various answers or ways to achieve the goal.

In addition, we should not forget about the third condition for the formation of public opinion - the level of competence. If a person is unfamiliar with any issue under discussion, then the most common response to a request for an opinion is: "I don't know." But such an option is also possible when a person simply does not have enough knowledge to argue, discuss the issue. The mechanism of formation of public opinion is still poorly understood. Of course, the fact that the development of common opinions involves the struggle of individual ones. If a common opinion has been formed on issues that are generally significant, relevant and typical for a given society, then it, acquiring invariant features, acts as a common opinion, because it is an expression of the social whole. But the point is not only in the scale of the problems on which public opinion is formed, but also in how, from what positions, first a collective, group, and then intergroup judgment, attitude to certain social problems is developed. Another very important aspect of the analyzed issue is the structure, essence and content of public opinion. There are speculations about this:

1) public opinion is a specific conclusion of a certain community of people on certain problems, the result of people's mental activity;

2) selection criteria in the formation of public opinion are public interests and needs. Only those phenomena or facts of social life become its objects that attract attention to themselves, evoke the need to develop a general judgment on them;

3) mass judgments of people have varying degrees of objectivity (truth). This is because opinions can be formed on the basis of both scientific knowledge and false views and erroneous ideas. In case of a lack of objective information, people compensate for it with rumors, intuition, etc. Public opinion without a solid scientific foundation can be wrong. Scientific criticism is often replaced by prejudice;

4) public opinion acts as a specific motivating force that regulates the behavior of people, their practical activities. Acting as a regulating force, it refers to the active, i.e. seized by the masses, part of the public consciousness. Public opinion in this case not only reflects a certain level of people's knowledge on a particular issue, but also fixes their active attitude to the object of opinion, forming a kind of alloy of rational, emotional and volitional components. This phenomenon exists in the minds of people and is expressed publicly, acting as a powerful means of social influence;

5) public opinion is a specific product of people's interaction, a kind of combination of opinions, leveled, changed, forming a new quality, and not reducible to a simple sum of individual opinions.

The formation of public opinion is subject to the rule of non-linear addition (an individual opinion may become general, some will not be included in the general opinion at all, etc.). When solving the problem of the subject of public opinion, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of the subject and the spokesman. Individuals, groups of people can act as spokesmen. As for the subject of public opinion, society as a whole, the people, the party, the international community, etc., act in this capacity. The mass media - newspapers, radio, television - are powerful levers for the formation and expression of public opinion.

So, not any group, collective opinion becomes or is public, but only that which meets the criteria of "social interest", "discussion", "competence". And its spokesmen are the classes, the social strata, the commonwealth of classes, the people. This means that opinion can be classified as: individual, group, or general, public opinion, or public. Public opinion cannot exist outside the system of economic, socio-political, ideological and moral relations. The value judgments of this phenomenon have social character. More G.V. Plekhanov in "Essays on the History of Materialism" wrote that public opinion has its roots in the social environment and, ultimately, in economic relations; this does not contradict the fact that any given "public opinion" begins to grow old as soon as the mode of production that gives rise to it begins to grow old.

The phrase "public opinion" appeared in England in the second half of the 12th century. It was first used by the English politician and writer John Salisbury. In the 18th century, this concept began to be widely used in other countries. The power of public opinion, its active influence on the activities of the subjects of the historical process have become undeniable.

Public opinion is a specific manifestation of mass consciousness. This is a complex spiritual formation that contains judgments, ideas, ideas, assessments, and a reflective attitude (hidden and explicit) social groups to current events, facts, phenomena and problems of society. Public opinion reflects the interests, moods, feelings of classes and social groups of society in a given historical period of time. In fact, public opinion is an indicator of how social groups and society as a whole reflect and perceive ongoing social processes.

In modern sociological literature (foreign and domestic) one can find many different definitions of public opinion. Public opinion includes a wide range of concepts. First, there are attitudes of the mind that accept statements as true, or reject them. Secondly, it is a point of view, a position, ideas about social reality. Thirdly, public opinion is seen as a value judgment or judgment about some object.

Researchers identify several approaches to determining the nature of this social phenomenon. Briefly they can be described as follows:

1) public opinion does not include all points of view on a particular problem that individual individuals have, but only those that are associated with an assessment of the situation in relation to which a given set of individuals acts as a community;

2) public opinion cannot be abstract, that is, it exists on a specific issue and arises in a specific situation;

3) public opinion is always publicly expressed, brought to the attention of society or any social group; otherwise it will be an individual point of view individuals;

3) public opinion appears when it reflects the attitude to the problems that interest a particular society or a particular community of people;

4) public opinion is formed only if the public has access to information about the problem of interest. It must be remembered that it can arise both on the basis of information that reflects the real state of things, and distort reality;

5) public opinion persists for a certain period of time, quite definitely, which allows us to consider it as a social phenomenon.

We can give the following definition of this phenomenon.

Public opinion is a specific manifestation of public consciousness, a complex spiritual formation, expressed in assessments and characterizing an explicit or hidden attitude towards topical issues reality inherent in individual groups, social communities or society as a whole.

Public opinion always reflects the collective position and arises on issues of public interest.

At its core, public opinion is a combination of theoretical ideas, provisions of "common sense" and even delusions. It manifests itself first in emotions and judgments, and then in actions. In addition, researchers believe that public opinion is the most important mechanism social interaction people, since the functioning of any social group is impossible without the development of common ideas, judgments about common affairs, without collective assessments of events, without determining ways to solve pressing problems.

In the structure of public opinion, an object and a subject are distinguished.

The object of public opinion are specific phenomena, topics, problems on which judgments and points of view are expressed, that is, what public opinion is formed about. Thus, all the diversity of social life gives rise to the diversity of human judgments. Public opinion in its content is as complex as the processes taking place in society. The object of public opinion covers material production and political life, the state of ecology and health care, spiritual needs and socio-psychological well-being of people, and much more.

According to the sociologist B.A. Grushin, the object of public opinion must be studied, paying attention, firstly, to the analysis of the general ability of public opinion judgments to reflect reality; secondly, to highlight the criteria by virtue of which the phenomena of life become the object of public opinion

The subject and spokesman of public opinion are people who express judgments or give assessments to a particular problem that arises in society.

The subject of public opinion has a complex structure. The elements of this structure are classes, social communities, strata and groups of society. The inclusion of a particular group in the subject of public opinion depends on the significance of the problem under discussion, its importance for this group.

The diversity of opinions is due to the specifics of the perception of ongoing events, differences in the interests and social experience of people, which often leads to their clash, polarization and harmonization.

When does public opinion appear? What conditions affect its appearance and functioning? The most important condition is the social interests of people. Public opinion appears when a problem that arises in any sphere of public life (economic, political, spiritual, social) has practical significance and affects the interests of people. Most researchers consider this the first condition for the emergence of public opinion.

The second condition is related to the presence of debatability, that is, the problem or question under discussion must be debatable: social groups must have differences in assessments and judgments.

The third condition is the level of competence of people (they must have the knowledge to discuss a particular issue).

The mechanism of formation of public opinion has not been sufficiently studied by modern sociology. The complexity of this process lies in the fact that a common opinion is developed on the basis of individual judgments that "come into conflict with each other", agree or disagree. A common opinion arises in the assessment and discussion of topical, generally significant problems. Thus, a collective, group judgment is formed, and then an intergroup one.

Researchers say that there are two main sources that generate public opinion. The first source is associated with direct observation and assessment of the surrounding reality. This is the approval or condemnation by the population, social groups of certain actions, decisions of authorities or statements. Such public opinion is formed spontaneously. It is not amenable to targeted regulation.

The second source of public opinion is the mass media (newspapers, radio, television). Using these information channels, the population comprehends the expressed judgments, opinions, and assessments more rationally and logically. The mass media act as powerful levers for the formation and expression of public opinion.

What is the essence and what is the content of public opinion?

Most researchers note the following points:

public opinion is a specific conclusion (collective judgment) on any problem;

public interests and needs contribute to the formation of public opinion;

people's judgments have varying degrees of truth; public opinion that is not based on a scientific foundation can be erroneous; in case of lack of objective information, people use rumors or rely on their intuition;

public opinion becomes the driving force that regulates the behavior of social groups; at the same time, it reflects not only a certain level of knowledge of people on any issue, but also the attitude towards the object of opinion;

Public opinion is the result of the combination and interaction of people's opinions. It must be remembered that one opinion may become general, others will not be taken into account at all; the formed public opinion is integrative in nature;

public opinion exists in the minds of people and is always expressed publicly.

Social scores- the main, but not the only element of the structure of public opinion. Other elements that assessments rely on are theoretical and practical knowledge, as well as feelings and emotions. Social attitudes and will play an important role in shaping public opinion.

Consequently, public opinion is a unity of rational, emotional and volitional aspects. It has qualitative and quantitative characteristics, can have a positive and negative orientation, or be indifferent. For a long time, public opinion remains stable. Moreover, it can be enshrined in norms and values.

Public opinion researchers concluded that public opinion has areas of social and regional distribution. Public opinion is strengthened in the minds of individuals, in the minds of groups or classes, i.e. has a social

Spread. It functions within the framework of the region, region, district, country as a whole (regional distribution).

In what areas can public opinion manifest itself?

These are all spheres of public life - economics and politics, morality and culture, science and education, religion and law. Most often, public opinion manifests itself in the sphere of politics: people evaluate the activities of the legislative authorities, the parties and deputies elected by them. Closely related to political assessments are legal assessments of people's actions. Moral assessments measure the behavior of people with generally accepted norms and principles. At the same time, they can act as an element of social control.

Examples of public opinion are the assessments and judgments of various social groups in Russian society about the problems of social and economic development of Russian society. These may be the development of the country's housing and communal complex, the adoption of a new law on education, the quality and cost of healthcare services, infill development of cities and the preservation of historical monuments, and much more. As a specific example, one can cite the results of a public opinion poll conducted by the Institute for Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2009. The task of the study was to determine the phenomena that, in the opinion of the Russians, it is necessary to fight in the first place. The survey involved representatives of the population in various subjects Russian Federation aged 18 years and over. The data are presented in table 1.

Table 1.

The opinions of Russians about the phenomena of public life, which must be dealt with in the first place, in %

Note: the sum of the answers is more than 100%, since the respondents could mark several positions.

Essence and distinctive features public opinion

Public opinion is the main partner of the state, the media and other political actors interested in expanding their political support.

From a social point of view, this is the main source of information about the interests of citizens, a mechanism for expressing their attitude to power and its specific actions. For example, public opinion polls serve as the most important tool for identifying the political preferences of the population (represented in the form of ratings of leaders or parties), their attitude to government actions in times of crisis, etc.
The importance of public opinion as the most important counterpart of power was manifested in antiquity. So, Protagoras spoke of the "public opinion" of the whole society, which is able to distinguish truth from falsehood. Because of this, he saw in the civil community not only a source of moral and legal forces, but also the possibility of establishing social measure. Socrates, who also gave great importance opinion of society, emphasized the opinion of the wise, which is truer than the opinion of the majority. Plato adhered to the same position, considering the aristocracy as the main subject of society's opinion. Hegel associated public opinion with the "compatibility" of individual judgments, which, due to the presence in society of "formal subjective freedom", could give appropriate advice to the authorities. In the XII century. English writer and statesman D. Salisbury introduced the special term public opinion, which characterized the moral support of the parliament by the population.

A relatively conceptualized theory of public opinion took shape by the 1950s and 1960s. However, despite the constant desire for a detailed description of the interaction of public opinion with various political institutions, scientists have not come to a consensus regarding this phenomenon. In theory, its understanding prevails either as a socio-psychological state of society, or as a set of moral and ethical parameters, or as an evaluation structure. The question of the subject of public opinion is also interpreted ambiguously.

Thus, J. Habermas understands by public opinion the totality of the positions of people who are educated and own property, whose group opinion claims the universal significance of political positions. N. Luhmann believes that public opinion does not have special subjects, and the expressed points of view fix the leading theme that attracts the attention of people whose views may be very different. The German researcher E. Noel-Neumann considers public opinion as a set of assessments, including the views of people who not only support governments, but also those who do not speak out due to either passivity or opposition, or unwillingness to be isolated (the so-called spiral of silence).

To understand the essence and nature of public opinion, it should be taken into account that in the MICS, some of the messages disseminated by the authorities do not need to be approved by public opinion. As already mentioned, power can form one-way communications without feedback. But along with this, there are also attempts to establish contact with public opinion and with society as a whole. So, summarizing the approaches that have developed in science and taking into account the inconstant need of the authorities for the judgments of citizens, we can say that public opinion is a set of judgments and assessments that characterize the state of the mass (group) consciousness, which affects the content and nature of various political processes (changes in the sphere of government authority).

From this point of view, it is an element of representing the interests of the population by the center of power, a mechanism for presenting the most acute and significant problems for citizens. From a substantive point of view, this is not the entire mass consciousness, but only its top, a set of assessments and ideas that unites a particular group (including the majority) of people. Forming the spiritual climate, influencing the political atmosphere in society, these assessments inevitably acquire political meaning and significance for those in power.

Public opinion as a stable political mechanism for the presentation of social interests arose as a result of the development of democracy and civil society institutions. In the structure of public opinion, both mass and local points of view are formed. Their occurrence and correlation depends on the level of competitiveness in society, the presence of political presentation mechanisms in it, claims made by people for the universality of their own position.

Any facts and phenomena can act as an object of public opinion. social life(including the statements of individual politicians, whose assessment causes a politically significant reaction of the population). Thus, public opinion is always concentrated around certain ideas and phenomena. At the same time, people can repeatedly change their views and judgments, positions and conclusions, interpret the same phenomena. The assessments expressed by public opinion do not always adequately reflect the events taking place in society (W. Lippman). The role of prejudices, stereotypes, misconceptions is great in public opinion. Due to its largely emotional nature, it is sometimes very one-sided, biased. Therefore, along with a positive impact on the government, the desire to force the state to listen to the voice of citizens, public opinion is often dangerous due to its incompetence.

Structure and functions of public opinion
The structure of public opinion, as a rule, includes mass (group) moods, emotions, feelings, as well as formalized assessments and judgments. Within this framework, there is a certain dynamics of its development from abstract ideas, unclear and undecided emotions to more rigorous and rational concepts and assessments. Under the conditions of a crisis, such dynamics are characterized by extreme inconsistency, a repeated return from more or less formulated assessments to unclear forebodings.

For each of these forms of political images dominating in society, there are special channels of communication with the authorities.

Thus, sensual opinions are expressed at rallies, spontaneous gatherings, meetings. Formalized assessments are usually broadcast with the help of speeches by independent experts speaking on behalf of the public - leaders, in the form of newspaper articles, comments, etc.

The most significant functions of public opinion include: representation of the current policy in the eyes of the public; providing feedback in the public administration system, which implies a correction of the course pursued by the regime; increasing the degree of legitimacy of the ruling regime; socialization of citizens included in the sphere of political relations.

Public opinion does not have an unequivocal focus on transforming reality. When making decisions, the authorities can either take into account (in whole or in part) the positions and assessments expressed by the public, or not take them into account. However, they must respond to public opinion and fix their attitude towards it.

The realities of the political struggle show that the government itself sometimes assumes the functions of expressing public opinion. In particular, using the media close to the regime, the ruling circles nominate their "leaders of public opinion", distribute materials about the events, comment on them in a certain way in order to create the necessary mood in society. Public assessments of what happened on behalf of certain groups are given, to which the authorities subsequently react based on their own interests.

Political practice provides examples of diverse types of public opinion that have their own parameters. Thus, the opinions of the public can be distinguished by the nature of their influence on the authorities; the degree of illusory nature, reflecting the delusions and prejudices prevailing in them; the level of constructiveness; degree of directiveness in relation to power. Specialists also distinguish homogeneous (where ideas and positions rigidly cement public opinion) and inhomogeneous (in which various assessments and positions compete). Depending on the form of expression and the degree of closeness to the positions of the authorities, public opinion may be of an official or unofficial nature. For example, in the former USSR, forms of "unanimous" (caused both by the work of party bodies and the passivity of the population) support by the population of any political actions of the authorities (colloquially - "approved") have become widespread.

The universal, constantly manifesting properties of public opinion include: internal inconsistency and imbalance, creating the possibility of reorienting i public opinion from one point of view to another; situationality, dependence on the dynamics of political changes; the relative stability of the formulated positions, which makes it possible to replicate and distribute them faster than they change meanings; simplification and superficiality of assessments.

Formation of public opinion

The mechanisms of formation of public opinion are very diverse and significantly depend on the ways in which civil society communicates with the government, the level of institutionalization of democracy, and the organization of the public. In the very general view distinguish between emotional, spontaneous and rational-conscious ways of its formation.

Emotional, sensual ways and mechanisms are formed, as a rule, on the basis of interpersonal communication. However, it will take a long time for group positions, and even more so for mass opinion, to crystallize through such channels. Here the role of the mechanisms of psychological suggestion, infection is great.

Spontaneous methods of formation are most often based on the opinion of the leader and media reports. In the first case, the positions expressed by an authoritative leader shape the implicitly existing opinions of citizens. People join them, thereby amplifying their sound and expanding their political opportunities.

As part of this method concentration of the public around certain phenomena and ideas, the media seek to get rid of the inconsistency in the depiction of events, to achieve certainty in understanding what is happening. Certain relationships, emotional states, patterns and stereotypes are cultivated here. In this context, methods of subconscious stimulation are often used: standardized and simplified representations are introduced into the news flow, containing certain evaluative associations, stereotypes or standards, which causes an automatic positive or negative public reaction to a particular event. Such associations fixed at the subconscious level, for example, include ethnic or social prejudices that provoke a value attitude to the problem of “friend or foe”.

With this method of forming a public position, the role of not only opinion leaders, but also the intellectual elite is high. However, there are no guarantees that the authorities in this case will specifically respond to the opinions and assessments expressed.

Public opinion is also formed as a result of the action of special structures, parties, movements, analytical structures, which at the professional level are engaged in the development and broadcast of certain assessments on behalf of the public. Such professionalization is inextricably linked with the strengthening of rational procedures for the preparation of public positions, the formation of channels, tracking the methods of disseminating information and bringing it to power structures.

They play the most significant role in shaping public opinion, establishing norms of behavior in modern society, as well as exercising control over world political, cultural, social, and economic processes. The media are a kind of "relays", with the help of which the information needs of modern society are satisfied.

It should be noted that the media refers to institutions various shapes, which are created for the transmission and dissemination of information of various content using technical means and communication channels: print media, radio, television, Internet resources, etc. The mass media system directly depends on the society in which it operates. In turn, the media perform the function of regulating social processes and the function of influencing society: its state, speed and vector of development, etc.

With the help of these functions, public opinion is formed, and thus a person is programmed for certain actions. The media have long been an important tool for disseminating information that influences public consciousness. Abraham Mol - French scientist, philosopher, wrote about the media: “They actually control our entire culture, passing it through their filters, single out individual elements from the general mass of cultural phenomena and give them special weight, increase the value of one idea, devalue another, polarize thus the whole field of culture. What did not get into the channels of mass communication in our time has almost no effect on the development of society.

In this case, it can be concluded that for modern man the fact of complete protection from the influence of the media on his life as a whole is impossible. This article discusses such a concept as "public opinion" - this is a kind of "configuration" of mass consciousness, with the help of which the attitude of society to certain events is demonstrated, the behavior of individuals is regulated and social institutions, profitable forms are introduced and established social relations.

In everyday use, this concept most often implies the point of view of society on a particular socially significant issue. It should be noted that the significance of public opinion is determined by the level of development of such indicators as: politics, economics, culture, social rights and freedom, etc. Public opinion is reflected in voting in elections, public opinion polls, in the mass media, etc. Analyzing public opinion as a system, three main components can be distinguished: - rational; - emotional; - volitional. Let's take a closer look at each of them. The rational component is defined as people's knowledge in the field of facts, events that are significant for society.

This component is inextricably linked with the level of awareness, education of the subject. The next component is emotional. These are feelings, moods concerning this or that object of public opinion. If we analyze the ratio of emotional and rational in the composition of public opinion, then we can identify the degree of possibility of manipulating this society: the dominance of the emotional component makes it possible to easily put pressure on public opinion, as well as set it in the right direction.

The third component - volitional - certain actions of the subjects of public opinion. All of these components are inextricably linked, so that public opinion is an integral system with its own specific properties.

By nature, due to limited opportunities, a person cannot make direct contact with public opinion. He can personally learn and take into account only the opinion of another person, and the opinion of society - from the media.

Further, the collected "mosaic" of public opinion is introduced into the consciousness of the individual, who unconsciously compares himself with the majority, since in the public consciousness it is this majority that is designated as the owner and disseminator of moral truths and principles. A person perceives information that is disseminated by the media through the prism of his worldview, beliefs in a particular issue, psychological and social state. The media consciously form a person's ability to perceive in a certain way various pictures of reality.

At the same time, not only the consciousness of people changes, but also the state of the audience, its properties and characteristics. In this article we will consider the methods of influence of mass media on public consciousness. There are both overt and covert mechanisms of influence. Today, the so-called “subconscious stimulation method” is widely popular. It lies in the fact that the attitude of society to certain problems of the surrounding world is formed through the creation of simplified standardized representations, that is, images and stereotypes.

There are two main methods of forming and changing attitudes in the mass consciousness - suggestion and persuasion. Let's take a closer look at each of them. Persuasion is one of the methods of influencing a person's consciousness by appealing to his own critical judgment. This method is based on a careful selection and logical ordering of facts in accordance with the worldview and psychological attitudes of a particular person. The media can select and shape a variety of data that is distributed in society. All this is done for the purpose of persuasion.

In this case, there is a direct relationship: further actions and behavior of people depend on the content of the information they receive. Therefore, the most important task of the media is to select the most objective, meaningful and reliable information. The method of persuasion includes a large number of information dissemination techniques, the purpose of which is to convince a person of the reliability of the data provided.

Let's list them: - fragmentation of presentation, that is, fragmentation of information into fragments;  ritualization - display of official meetings, events easily accessible for the TV camera;  personalization - the priority is to focus not on the meaning and content of the event, but on the media - politicians, show business stars, etc.;  diverting attention from the most important information.

The next method of influencing public consciousness is suggestion. It, in comparison with persuasion, is more effective, as it has an emotional impact on a person. Suggestion is a special process of influencing the mental state of a person.

This process is associated with a decrease in consciousness and criticality in the perception of information, as well as the lack of a detailed logical assessment of reality. Suggestion is the only possible way conveying any ideas that cannot be proven by logical reasoning.

The power of the word and the visual image is very great when it comes to the emotional impact on a person: these forms of information transfer can override rational arguments and facts.

The media arsenal has accumulated large stock techniques that can effectively influence the feelings and emotions of people. Let's list them:  acceptance of "certificate";

 “sticking labels” technique;  technique of “radiant generalization”; - reception of "unattractive angle"; - reception "spiral of default";  “creating an image” technique;  “playing the common people” technique (populism); - use of color. So, in this article, the basic concepts of journalism were considered: "mass media", "public opinion", "the main methods of influencing public consciousness". The development and formation of public opinion directly depends on the data that the media carry to society through technical channels for disseminating information.

By virtue of his nature, a person cannot make direct contact with public opinion. Therefore, he perceives important information for him with the help of the media. Based on this, over time, a large number of effective methods impact on public consciousness, the main ones are persuasion and suggestion.

Literature

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