Based on the theory of Spiral of Silence from Noelle-Neumann, the main purpose of this research is to figure out internet users how to express their opinion after evaluating opinion climate and whether the characters of the Internet make their opinion- expression arbitrarily. Moreover, this research focuses on Chinese ¡¥face¡¦ culture to examine the cultural context how to influence opinion- expression of internet users. This research chooses ¡¥PeoPo¡¦ citizen journalism platform as research field, and adopts in-depth interview to analyze the opinion- expression of 9 PeoPo citizen reporters. As for the research topic, it¡¦s concerned with the issue of village migration of Taiwanese aborigine after the disaster caused by Typhoon Morakot in 2009. Therefore, this research attempts to figure out the PeoPo citizen reporters¡¦ inner process of opinion- expression and the influence of Chinese face culture. This research finds that the opinion-evaluation of internet users mainly rely on the Internet, and the fear of isolation that the spiral of silence theory emphasizes don¡¦t predict their willingness to speak up alone, but Chinese face culture does. Furthermore, the characters of the Internet don¡¦t prevent the spiral of silence effect. Although PeoPo not only accepts diverse viewpoints widely, but also inspires more citizens to voice local issues, the results show that actually PeoPo citizen reporters express their opinion with great pressure mostly lowering their willingness to speak up such as the foundation idea of PeoPo, reference group, threat of opposition, objective principle of journalism, and Chinese face culture. In sum, getting one¡¦s own way is discouraged on PeoPo; in other words, the characters of the Internet still unable to relieve PeoPo citizen reporters of speaking up.

With the advances in technology and popularization of the Internet, the interaction of human beings in real society has extended to the Internet forum. Due to the low barrier for entering the Internet, people can always speak their mind freely and make comments on whatever they want to. Behind a world that seems to have freedom and equality of speech, the expression of opinions is being tested by standards of different cultures and living backgrounds. Using Gossiping¢wthe most popular and interactive board on PTT¢w as the source data, this study identifies the spiral of silence between the mainstream opinions and non-mainstream opinions. Where the spiral of silence occurred, the study also examines the force which affected the spiral based on the theories of stigma and analyze its accompanying meanings. With different positions, people resulted in different critical standards and stigma phenomenon. When facing stigma, people should realize the causes of things from the social and cultural dimensions, and rethink the positive meanings that stigma brings to us instead of being afraid of it.

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This paper aims to examine the different perspectives that emerged during the debate surrounding the right-wing newspaper “Nya Tider” and their participation at the Swedish bookfair in Gothenburg back in 2017. The study relies on the theoretical foundation that is known as Spiral of Silence and Agenda-Setting. But is examined and operationalized by the historical perspective given by John Durham Peters in his book “courting the abyss”. Peters portrays in his book a variety of different takes on the free speech phenomenon. The study’s aim was then to see if similar perspective were protruding now as it has before.A research question regarding what perspective were protruding in the debate that followed “Nya Tider” and their announcement that they were going to attend the bookfair once again where therefore coined. The direct translation of this questions is “What perspective of where the limit of free speech should be drawn is present in the Swedish media outlet regarding the debate of “Nya Tider” participation at the book fair in Gothenburg 2017.In order to examine what perspective protruded in the debate the approach of a qualitative content analysis was deemed the best way to examine the phenomenon. A total of (n) 36 articles were systematically analyzed and a total of 4 perspectives where formed, the liberal, the absolutistic libertarian, the opponent perspective and the victim perspective. Each one different from each other. The study also examined the level occurrence of the different perspective and found that in 18 out of the 36 article’s the opponent perspective where present, whereas the absolutistic libertarian perspective only occurs in 4 out of the 36 articles’. A big difference where therefor found in what coverage the different perspectives were given in the Swedish news outlets.In a time where political censorship is at a rise around Europe with the implementation of laws that prevent people from speaking their minds. Or compelling them to address people a certain way, not by choice but by legislation, the need to examine what perspectives are occurring in our media might for the uneducated seem like a vague way to approach a complicated matter.But Agenda-Setting research has shown that the media agenda affects both the public agenda as well as the legislative part of our society. Therefore, a lack of occurrence of certain perspectives can also affect what laws are put in place. It is therefore imperative to examine what sort of perspective occurs in the Swedish debate to prevent an infraction of the Swedish free speech law, and to keep Sweden a free, secular society.

The purpose of Att vara en i mängden… – En studie om religiös isolering på Facebook (Running with the pack… – A study on religious isolation on Facebook) is to gain an understanding of religious isolation between Christian, Jewish, Muslim and non-religious people. Further, the purpose is also to gain insight on how Christians, Jews and Muslims experience Facebook as a platform for expressing religious identity. The study was made using a concurrent mixed method, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, targeting Swedish Facebook users. The theoretical framework behind the study is The Spiral of Silence, by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann.The results indicate that religious isolation exists, and that it effects how prone users are to self-disclose about their religious identity. Also, the study shows that public opinion does not affect how prone users are to self-disclose. Rather, it is determined by the perceived opinion of the people in the user’s Facebook network. Due to the algorithm used by Facebook to filter users’ newsfeed, the recommendation to all Facebook users is to deliberately show interest to a diversity of religious content

Public opinion polls sometimes overestimate the majority and underestimate the minority, such as Taipei and Kaohsiung Mayoral Election of 2006. On one hand the study is based on spiral of silence theory to analyze the phenomenon, and on the other it tries to explore the other factors that may affect the voters¡¦ willingness to express opinion in Taipei and Kaohsiung city. According to findings, social integration effect isn¡¦t a main factor to affect people¡¦s willingness to express opinion in Taipei and Kaohsiung city. On the contrary, people¡¦s level of interpersonal communication, political efficacy and education in Taipei and interpersonal communication, political participation, political confidence and political efficacy in Kaohsiung city are important factors to increase people¡¦s willingness to express opinion. In addition, the study uses interactive variables to go a step further to explore social integration effect. The results show that the spiral of silence effect supports voters¡¦ behavior in Kaohsiung city, but doesn¡¦t in Taipei city.

Šiame darbe, remiantis šiuolaikinėmis komunikacijos teorijomis (Agenda-setting, „tylos spiralės“ bei įvaizdžio), nagrinėjama Lietuvos ir kitų Baltijos šalių įvaizdžio dinamika Ispanijos dienraščiuose „El País“ bei „El Mundo“ 1987–2007 m. laikotarpiu, analizuojami Ispanijos dienraščių dienotvarkės konstravimo ypatumai. Žiniasklaidoje apgalvotai teikiama informacija apie kiekvieną šalį. Šios žinios gali skatinti ekonomikos augimą, politikos procesus, turizmo plėtrą. Bet kurios šalies ar jos gyventojo paveikslas formuojamas ir atskirų individų. Šio darbo objektu pasirinkti didžiausi populiariausi Ispanijos dienraščiai „El País“ ir „El Mundo“. Atliekama kokybinė ir kiekybinė dviejų didžiausių Ispanijos dienraščių „El País“ bei „El Mundo“ atrinktų publikacijų turinio analizė. Lietuvos įvaizdis lyginamas su Latvijos bei Estijos įvaizdžiais. Taip pat gilinamasi į Agenda-setting, „tylos spiralės“ teorijos modelius įvaizdžio formavimo procese. Aptariami verslo, studijų ir turizmo klausimai. Pateikiamas straipsnių statistinis bei teminis paskirstymas, literatūros analizė bei apžvelgiama vienintelės tarptautinės Ispanijos žinių agentūros EFE veikla. Lietuvių emigruoja daugiau nei latvių ar estų, todėl lietuviai dažniau patenka į Ispanijos spaudos dienotvarkę. Aiškinamasi, kokios naujienos skelbiamos apie Lietuvą ir lietuvius dviejuose skirtinguose dienraščiuose, kokie atgarsiai apie lietuvius migrantus Ispanijoje pasirodo spaudoje, ar labai skiriasi informacijos kiekis dienraščiuose... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / On the grounds of modern communication theories (agenda-setting, „spiral of silence“ and image), this paper studies the image dynamics of Lithuania and other Baltic countries in Spanish newspapers “El País“ and “El Mundo“ of 1987-2007, analyses peculiarities of Spanish daily agenda setting. Mass media presents information about every country in a very deliberate manner. This information may promote economical growth, political processes, development of tourism. The image of any country or its inhabitants is formed by separate individuals. Chosen objects of the paper are the most popular newspapers of Spain “El País“and „El Mundo“. The study presents qualitative and quantitative analysis of the contents of selected publications of the aforementioned newspapers. Lithuanian image was found to be compared with Latvian and Estonian images. The paper also goes deep into the models of agenda-setting and spiral of silence in the image formation process, examines the issues of culture, migration, business, studies and tourism. Moreover, a statistical and thematic allocation of the articles and literary analysis is introduced, as well as the review of the activity of the international Spanish news agency EFE is presented. Lithuanians more often find a way into Spanish press than Latvians or Estonians because of greater migration. The paper examines the announcements about Lithuania and its people in the two different newspapers, studies the responses of... [to full text]

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.

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