The purpose of this investigation is to further an understanding of the spiral of silence theory as it functions within both face-to-face (FtF) and computer-mediated contexts. Computer-mediated communication (CMC is often touted for being an empowering medium as it affords its users anonymity. This finding could have an impact on whether the spiral of silence occurs within CMC. Previous studies have relied upon hypothetical scenarios and have established weak support for the theory. Despite this study’s utilization of a within-subjects experimental design, however, no significant differences in minority opinion holders’ fear of isolation were found. Similarly, no significant relationship was found between minority opinion holders’ attention paid to news and fear of isolation. In regards to both majority and minority opinion holders, no significant differences in perceptions of opinions expressed in either condition were found. Reasons for such unexpected findings, as well as strengths, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

The news media serve as the Canadian public’s main source of information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This thesis examines the ways in which the Canadian media portray the conflict, through a lens of Habermas’ (1962) public sphere theory, Foucault’s (1926 – 1984) ideas on discourse, and Rawls’ (1921 – 2002) conceptions of equality and justice. Building on these theories, Noelle-Neumann’s Spiral of Silence theory (1974), Said’s Orientalism (1978), and d’Arcy’s (1913 – 1983) conception of the right to communicate are examined to arrive at a framework for analyzing Canadian news. Looking at ideological representations, power manifestations, issue framing, and social responsibility within the media, this thesis explores whether the Canadian media portray the conflict in such a way that fosters a downward spiral of opinions within the Canadian public. A Critical Discourse Analysis of coverage in two national English Canadian newspapers, The Globe and Mail and the National Post, during three separate timeframes of increased violence in Israel and Palestine between 2000 and 2009 reveals that newspaper representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are often entrenched in predefined ways of portraying the Other, fostering an Israeli-Palestinian spiral of silence in Canadian media.

This study first tests the factors influencing the willingness to express opinions online. Guided by the spiral of silence theory, the research used a survey to test whether fear of isolation and opinion congruency work online. Second, the study explores how psychological constructs, including self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and proxy efficacy affect the willingness to express disagreement. A 2 × 2, verbal persuasion × vicarious experience, experiment was applied. Third, this study also conducted a content analysis to measure disagreement expressions in online newspapers and test how these expressions affect opinion quality and online discussion involvement. The survey study (N=321) showed that while fear of isolation online negatively predicts the willingness to express individual opinions, opinion climate congruency is not associated with the willingness. The online experiment demonstrated that mastery experience and verbal persuasion positively influence self-efficacy, but vicarious experience's effect was not confirmed. Self-efficacy plays the most salient role in predicting whether one selects to express disagreement online. The content analysis (N=1,288) of the discussion threads demonstrated that disagreement expression is widespread in the online newspaper forums analyzed, and such expression positively influences reasoned opinions and political discussion engagement.

This dissertation was conducted to determine whether Egyptians’ use of Facebook between December 17, 2010 and February 11, 2011 affected their perceptions of majority and minority opinions about President Hosni Mubarak’s government and thus influenced their willingness to express their opinions about that regime, in turn forming a new online public opinion that called for the January 25 revolution. For the purpose of this study, the theoretical framework was the spiral of silence theory. To answer the research questions in this dissertation the researcher used the qualitative approach, combining in-depth interviews with Egyptian Facebook users and qualitative content analysis of their Facebook pages. The results show that as Egyptians used Facebook, they came to believe that others held beliefs about the Mubarak regime similar to their own, they became more hopeful and confident that they could make a difference, and they became more likely to speak out about their opinions. As more voices began to be heard, more voices joined in the chorus of condemnation. These data suggested that the use of Facebook, as a means both of perception and expression, helped facilitate the formation of what can be called a “spiral of voice” among growing numbers of Egyptians. It was concluded that Noelle-Neumann’s spiral of silence may well have been an accurate description of public opinion formation in an age of government-controlled media, but that spiral of voice may be a better descriptor of public opinion formation and action in the age of social media.

The news media serve as the Canadian public’s main source of information about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This thesis examines the ways in which the Canadian media portray the conflict, through a lens of Habermas’ (1962) public sphere theory, Foucault’s (1926 – 1984) ideas on discourse, and Rawls’ (1921 – 2002) conceptions of equality and justice. Building on these theories, Noelle-Neumann’s Spiral of Silence theory (1974), Said’s Orientalism (1978), and d’Arcy’s (1913 – 1983) conception of the right to communicate are examined to arrive at a framework for analyzing Canadian news. Looking at ideological representations, power manifestations, issue framing, and social responsibility within the media, this thesis explores whether the Canadian media portray the conflict in such a way that fosters a downward spiral of opinions within the Canadian public. A Critical Discourse Analysis of coverage in two national English Canadian newspapers, The Globe and Mail and the National Post, during three separate timeframes of increased violence in Israel and Palestine between 2000 and 2009 reveals that newspaper representations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are often entrenched in predefined ways of portraying the Other, fostering an Israeli-Palestinian spiral of silence in Canadian media.

No description available.

Independent confessional schools have been a heavily discussed subject in Sweden in recent years. At the same time, the spread of information is shifting more and more from the religious institutions themselves to be controlled by the media according to the mediatization theory. This paper aims to investigate what arguments are used, and which themes can be identified in the discussion about confessional schools in Sweden in two large newspapers using qualitative thematic analysis. Moreover, the investigation is using a quantitative approach to find out if the question about confessional schools have gained more or less attention during recent years, looking at the number of publications from Swedish newspapers. The findings show that the number of publications has risen quite drastically in the last 15 years, and the years with the highest peaks correlate with the election years in 2018 and 2022, which both were election years in Sweden. Moreover, the paper aims to gain a better understanding about how we can relate that discourse to mediatization theory. Meaning that the media plays a big part in controlling the narrative, together with the audience. The results in this investigation are quite similar to previous research concerning what type of themes that can be identified in the discussion and debates about confessional schools. The investigation also highlights some difficulties in the legislation and decisions made to control how confessional schools in Sweden are being run.

The purpose of this study was to look for tendencies that social media can contribute to exposing users to a stronger perception of opinion polarization, and further to see if the daily presence of social networking sites can put normative pressure on the users. The study was made using a survey with participants from Umeå University during the time frame of november-december 2014. The theoretical framework behind the study was mainly drawn from The Spiral Of Silence by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann and was further supplemented with more current research, studying the effects from The Spiral Of Silence in the modern and more fragmented media landscape that exists now then when her theory was written. Further theoretical tools for analysis of the results came from Michel Foucault and his discussions in Discipline and punish, specifically his views on how surveillance can be discontinous in practice, but still permanent in it’s effects. The results of this study indicates that social media users tend to isolate themselves from uncomfortable opinions, and do not follow or read opinions they do not already agree with. This indicates that social media plattforms can function as a contributor to opinion polarization among the users, and this study argues that the behavioural patterns of the most frequent users increases that tendency. Further more the study showed that a smaller network of friends seems to increase the users perception of normative pressures, and that user activity is correlated to how frequent they self-censor posts before- and after they are published.

No description available.

Relatively low rates of homicide solvability results in law-abiding citizens being forced to co-exist with known murderers, which is detrimental to a community’s psyche. This condition happens disproportionately in neighborhoods where crime is high, cohesiveness among its members is weak, and the citizen/police relationship is little or non-existent. This research sought to understand this phenomenon by asking,” How can murder solvability rates improve in marginalized communities?” and employing four theoretical lenses. Using the city of New Orleans as a case study and holding Social Disorganization Theory constant, Spiral of Silence, Habitus, and Dramaturgy were utilized in an attempt to understand individuals who witness violent crime but do not come forward. From these theories, nine assumptions were formed, connecting the literature to this specific area of inquiry. Using a mixed methods approach both qualitative and quantitative data was collected within New Orleans from a variety of instruments: a survey (both web-based and in-person), a questionnaire and two deliberative forums. Utilizing the questionnaire and in conjunction with the Kettering Foundation and the National Issues Forum Institute (NIFI), this research was also able to quantitatively compare New Orleans data with data collected nationally by NIFI. While the data collected support all nine assumptions, five of the nine account for 82% of the data. Of these five, none originated from the Spiral of Silence theory, two originated from the Habitus theory, and three originated from the Dramaturgy theory.