About this ebook
Public Opinion is Walter Lippmann's classic anatomy of how citizens know—and mis-know—the world they must judge. Drawing on psychology and reportage, he argues that people navigate an unmanageable 'objective environment' through simplified 'pictures in our heads,' stereotypes, and the dramatizing routines of the press. From this pseudo-environment emerge propaganda and the famed 'manufacture of consent.' Lippmann maps the press's limits and publicity's incentives, doubts the 'omnicompetent' voter, and urges more organized intelligence-gathering and expert analysis. Written after World War I, in lucid, aphoristic prose, it inaugurates modern media and democratic theory. Educated at Harvard under William James and George Santayana, Lippmann carried a pragmatist suspicion of easy certainties into journalism. As a cofounder and editor of The New Republic, a war-time adviser, and later a widely read columnist, he watched government publicity and newsroom routines shape public narratives. Immersed in early social psychology and Progressive-era reform debates, he coined 'manufacture of consent' to name techniques he had observed, and his skepticism about mass competence framed his later exchange with John Dewey about the possibilities of democratic inquiry. Readers of media studies, political theory, and journalism will find an indispensable, unsettling guide to information overload, virality, and democracy's perennial vulnerabilities. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Author Biography · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.
Public Opinion is Walter Lippmann's classic anatomy of how citizens know—and mis-know—the world they must judge. Drawing on psychology and reportage, he argues that people navigate an unmanageable 'objective environment' through simplified 'pictures in our heads,' stereotypes, and the dramatizing...
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