Constructing Public Opinion: How Political Elites Do What They Like and Why We Seem to Go Along with It
Is polling a process that brings "science" into the study of society? Or are polls crude instruments that tell us little about the way people actually think? The role of public opinion polls in government and mass media has gained increasing importance with each new election or poll taken.\ Here Lewis presents a new look at an old tradition, the first study of opinion polls using an interdisciplinary approach combining cultural studies, sociology, political science, and mass communication....
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The first study of opinion polls using an interdisciplinary approach combining cultural studies, sociology, political science, and mass communication. Rather than dismissing polls, Lewis considers them a significant form of representation in contemporary culture; he explores how the media report on polls and, in turn, how publicized results influence the way people respond to polls. Booknews Though Lewis (communication, U. of Massachusetts, Amherst) writes that he sees opinion polls as "like the faces plastered on the sides of billboardsobvious and yet enigmatic, loud without depth," he also confesses that he has always been an ardent consumer of them. His study attempts to understand what polls are in a social and cultural sense, what they signify about ideology, and how they might be used to question the ideologies of political and economic elites rather than validate them. The book's first section deals with how public opinion is constructed, through the technology of polling and by the news media that report and interpret surveys. Its second section examines the roles played by the media and political elites in shaping public opinion as signified through polls. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPt. 1The Representation of Public Opinion1Why Numbers Matter and Why We Should Be Suspicious of Them32Who's In and Who's Out: Public Opinion Polls as a Cultural Form213Suppressing Dissent: The Media Representation of Public Opinion44Pt. 2The Formation of Public Opinion4Getting the Right Response? Media Influence on Public Opinion775What Are Opinions and Where Do They Come From?986The Ideology of Assumptions1187Flickering the Embers of Consent: Public Opinion and the Military Industrial Complex1388Selling Unrepresentative Democracy167Conclusion: Hegemony and Its Discontents198Appendix205References221Index235
\ International Journal of Public Opinion ResearchVery well written and shows that cultural studies and quantitative data are not necessarily incompatible.\ \ \ \ \ \ BooknewsThough Lewis (communication, U. of Massachusetts, Amherst) writes that he sees opinion polls as "like the faces plastered on the sides of billboards<-->obvious and yet enigmatic, loud without depth," he also confesses that he has always been an ardent consumer of them. His study attempts to understand what polls are in a social and cultural sense, what they signify about ideology, and how they might be used to question the ideologies of political and economic elites rather than validate them. The book's first section deals with how public opinion is constructed, through the technology of polling and by the news media that report and interpret surveys. Its second section examines the roles played by the media and political elites in shaping public opinion as signified through polls. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
