Public Opinion on the View of Pierre Bourdieu - Essay Example

PUBLIC OPINION DOES NOT EXIST' (PIERRE BOURDIEU) Introduction In the history of human beings seeking of other opinions is common. There are many instances where people have come together and sought the opinion of others regarding a situation. In this case public opinion is an important aspect which helps us to get the feeling or the view of other on a certain issues. It is an important process in decision making since it ensures that there is the making of decision that is supported by a majority of the population. (Buckingham 1998, P. 62) In the recent past there has been an increased incidence of public opinion. With the growth of democracy there have been calls fro the in inclusion of the majority of the population n the process of governance and in other areas. Therefore public opinion has become a valuable aspect of governance. In this case the evolution of technology and more democratic forms of govern which has kept the upholding of the right of individual has seen a dramatic evolution in giving of information to all people. One of the recent developments in the public opinion arena has been the opinion polls that have been used to give various information or views of the public on certain issues. They have been successful use in political pundits, market researches, national government agendas, and in other areas. Sociologists have relied on opinion polls in order to determine the success or failure of an event based on the views of the public. However opinion polls and other public view are contested notion that are likely to change overnight depending on what will be happening next. (Entman and Herbst 2001, P. 242; McCombs 2004, p. 63) Public opinion on the view of Pierre Bourdieu The development of public opinion can be traced to many years ago during the time of Greek civilization. The quest on the nature of public opinion was first expressed by Plato who was a great Greek philosopher and who made immense contribution to the modern body of knowledge. From Plato the quest for the nature of public opinion can then be traced back to Herbamans and later to Bourdieu who seemed to contest the ability to have public opinion. Let us focus on the view of Bourdieu on public opinion and why he contested the existence of public opinion. The expression of the nature of public opinion according to Bourdieu can be traced to what he wrote in his book. He asserted the "the politician who yesterday said 'God is on our side' today says 'public opinion is on our side'". (Bourdieu 1979, pg. 125) According to Bourdieu, he was criticizing the notion that political have a way of relying on the views of the public which is done solely for source of support. In this case he was trying to show that the power of the politicians if vested in the people. The public have more power and control of the political situation in a state rather than the politician. This can also be attributed to what Aristotle referred to as a weak king when he asserted that a king who lost support of the public opinion should not be regarded as a king any more. In this case it is clear that the modern understanding of democracy and the politics can be taken in a way that political power should be vested on the people and should be responsibility of the people and their opinions. But the way Bourdieu compared political power with God detest the power of the public opinion. Bourdieu views public opinion as a manufactured consent and not as a traditional ways of research that can be used to give accurate information on something. He argued that public opinion in the form that is implemented is used in survey and poll is not efficient and does not exist. In this case he showed that opinion polls are used by those in power as a political instrument that legitimize their actions. They are relations of forces and tension and therefore they cannot be described as a percentage in any way. In his criticism of the polls, Bourdieu asserts that each and every one of use has an opinion that can be given on an idea. He stressed that all the opinions that we can give have the same value and there is allows a consensus about the problems that we may be facing. In this case his only problem with the opinion is the way in which they are represented in form of percentages. His problem lies in various issues as far as these percentages are concentrated. First it is how people formulate and how they are able to formulate opinions in accordance with competence and inclination. Second it is how the answers to the question are interpreted ensuring that there is minimal chances of any bias. In his conclusion he asserted that simplified surveys cannot be used to tell us something on pressure groups and its interests or the inclination which are not very well expressed in form of an explicit discourse. However we should not take him to mean that they are not useful at all. Bourdieu shows that opinion polls make a great contribution to the life of the people since they help us to know how the majority is feeling on an issue. Bourdieu shows that public opinion when constructed by the power relations can be used to understand the means of social control. Therefore understanding the formation and presentation and effect of public opinion is very important. He asserts that if they are treated correctly they are likely to make a positive contribution to the society. Although he seemed to equal public opinion with opinion polls, his assertions are valid and important consideration when evaluating the justification for public opinion. In this case we can therefore interpret the notion that he was trying to explain with an assertion that public opinion might exist but their presentation may be inherent and problematic but the representation of public opinion in the opinion polls may be false and misleading. Therefore we cannot take a blank condemnation of what Bourdieu was trying to show in his postulation. But there is need to take a critical approach to the issue before we take side on whether his criticism was actually valid or it was not valid. In this case there is need to take a close look at the academic and policy use of the opinion polls and try to equate it against the whole concept of the public opinion resulting from opinion polls. (Beniger 1992, P. 70) Before taking a critical stand on the issue one should think and take an evaluation that was taken by Bourdieu. When it is reflected in an opinion poll that '67 percent of the population thinks that'. In this case there has to be a more critical approach in analyzing how the question was formulated, which words were used to select those question, who were interviewed, how the answers were corded, and many other factors that makes the whole idea of public opinion and the opinion polls questionable. According to Bourdieu perspective, most of the opinion polls are carried out only when there is an economic demand to do so. Therefore it is the one who wants to do the survey or the one who have resource who defined the problem and the question that are to be answered. In this case they can formulate the question and the allocate resources in order to get the opinion that they want. In seeking the opinion from the public, there is also an aspect of who are selected to answer the question. In a public opinion those who are pro-government are likely to give positive stance that supports the question even if what it been renewed may have negative implications. In the course of the analysis of the question the not-replies analysis are always given a raw deal and may be left unanswered. In collecting the information those who are interviewed are likely to interpret the question differently depending on their education level, social background and their political and social leaning. Bourdieu also gives another view. He criticized the opinion polls on the sense that people are likely to form their own opinion by taking ground on the middle. This means the there is a likelihood of invalidity of the information given since it will involve taking a methodological ground. In this case people can place themselves by taking a stand between different groups explicit opinion. Therefore polls can come closer to understanding how people form opinion in reality. (Feenberg 2002, P. 65; Livingstone 2004, p. 7) Therefore according to Bourdieu, opinion polls as a way of collecting public opinion on a subject will always be affected by several factors from the one who are carrying out the poll to the design of the research and the systematic analysis of the data that has been collected. However this is all changing with the evolving technology. There has been a new look at public opinion as a result of the opinion poll with the adoption of the new technology. There is a new outlook on the way in which public polling is being affected by the new technology in the market. (Herman, 1994, p. 25) James Beniger (1992, p. 32) has presented us with one of the modern improved view of opinion polling in the context of the emerging technology. He criticizes Herbamans theories in which he showed the structural transformation of the public spheres. Herbamans asserted that a true public opinion is formed when there is deliberative and frees discussion among individual who are equal in all aspects. In this way he postulated that opinion poll measure opinion of isolated individual. This was seen as a literal interpretation of public opinion as an opinion that can be expressed in public. Therefore these non public opinions play a role in the in view of forming a public opinion. However by presenting the view of isolated individual and aggregating them as a genuine public opinion, we tend to overlook various social and political forces which play an important role in forming and changing public opinion. (Jurgen 1998, P. 87) However the barriers that had been expressed by Bourdieu and others are being solved by the evolution of the new technology. In this regard the new technology has been successfully applied to overcome some limitations that Bourdieu expressed in his postulation. The rise of media literacy has been important in construction of public opinion. In particular the rise of the internet is one of the most important factors that has not only helped to increase communication between people but has also increased the level of access of information. The future of the public opinion has been moving from public debated issues on the media to take other new forms of public spheres that are being developed by the new communication and information technology. (David 2001, p. 62) The internet has been one of the most influential tools that have led to the development of various ways of public debating. It has opened access to a wide range of information which means that we have more freedom to debate than ever. The internet has led to the development of new public spheres which have become the centre for collection of public opinion. Online publication spheres have been instrument in enabling the collection of public information. The modern public spheres have taken the form of emails and blogs in which people give their opinions about a subject. This means that the role of the earlier forces which could affect the formulation of question has been reduced. Individual have become free to write what they feel about an issue. In this case there is more openness in the collection and the interpretation of the information. This is because there can be an individual analysis of all the information that is given on a blog. (Rebecca 2003, p. 54; Selfe 1999, P. 71) Wikis, blogs and other online bulletin boards have been designed with simplicity that Bourdieu argued about. They had been designed with mind simplicity they don't need complex software or any other knowledge in order to code question and answers. They are based on simple texts in which one can express their opinion without any difficult. They are also designed in a way that they encourage the uses to engage in a public discussion. Therefore they encourage the formation of a public rather that a mass. Most of the visitors who visit these sites are treated as equal since they just give their opinion and leave. They are open to all people. (Julie 2002, P. 219; Livingstone 2004, p. 179) Conclusion Therefore we can say that we cannot refute the claims that were made by Bourdieu on the public opinion as regards their validity in the way they are formulated, carried out and anaylysed. But most of these difficulties are currently being overcome by the emerging technology which has helped to bread some of these barriers. Therefore the Bourdieu postulation may not hold or long as more and more people access the internet which provides blogs, wikis and other which are used to gauge public opinions. Technology has therefore broken most of these barriers that were given by the earlier philosophers. References Beniger, J 1992, The impact of polling on public opinion, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Vol. 4, Issue 3 Bourdieu, P 1979, Public Opinion does not exist, in A Matellart and S. 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