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In Public Opinion, Walter Lippmann analyzed the nature of public opinion with many valuable insights that still hold true today. Note that most of the historical references Lippmann uses to illustrate his theories are from World War I and surrounding events, and some aspects of the political environment of the time are totally irrelevant today. However, this book rises above the confines of its time. Lippmann dealt in an interdisciplinary method that is extremely rare, if not structurally impossible, in today's academic environment. His basic treatise is in the realm of political science but ably brings in supporting theories and knowledge from psychology, sociology, communications, history, and logic. Lippmann's then-current style of writing is also nearly impossible to find in today's social science writing, with a flowing prose loaded with references to classic literature and frequent use of imagined characters and scenarios. Part VI offers a surprisingly no-holds-barred examination of the American political system that is refreshingly free of today's unyielding us-and them ideologies. This feat of the intellect, just slightly outdated in its specific examples but not in its underlying insights, is a powerhouse treatise on how public opinion is constructed and influenced by social trends, politics, and media.

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9781466281196

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Walter Lippmann (1889 -1974) was an American intellectual, writer, reporter, and political commentator famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War. Lippmann was twice awarded (1958 and 1962) a Pulitzer Prize for his syndicated newspaper column, Today and Tomorrow. A meeting of intellectuals organized in Paris in August 1938 by French philosopher Louis Rougier, Colloque Walter Lippmann was named after Walter Lippmann. Walter Lippmann House at Harvard University, which houses the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, is named after him too. Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman used one of Lippmann's catch phrases-the Manufacture of Consent -- for the title of their book, Manufacturing Consent, which contains sections critical of Lippmann's views about the media. In Public Opinion, Lippmann noted that the stability the government achieved during the patronage era of the 1800s was threatened by modern realities. He wrote that a governing class must rise to face the new challenges. The basic problem of democracy, he wrote, was the accuracy of news and protection of sources. He argued that distorted information was inherent in the human mind. People make up their minds before they define the facts, while the ideal would be to gather and analyze the facts before reaching conclusions. By seeing first, he argued, it is possible to sanitize polluted information. Lippmann argued that seeing through stereotypes (which he coined in this specific meaning) subjected us to partial truths. Lippmann called the notion of a public competent to direct public affairs a false ideal. He compared the political savvy of an average man to a theater-goer walking into a play in the middle of the third act and leaving before the last curtain.

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