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Knowing the public mind

Researching the Public Opinion Environment Theories and Methods

By Sherry Devereaux Ferguson

*Publishers: Sage, Thousand Oaks

*Price: $ 29.95 (paperback)

PUBLIC opinion is the most powerful factor that determines the success and failure of governments, and makes and breaks the careers of politicians, corporate leaders, film stars, professionals in several disciplines and heads of public institutions. It i s also public opinion that leads towards success or failure the institutions, which produce and/or generate goods or services for public consumption. Business enterprises whose shares are traded in the market depend a great deal on public opinion. While people and institutions of the said categories are particularly dependent on public opinion in a big way, almost everybody in all walks of life in general are interested in it for a variety of reasons.

Individuals and organisations with large interest in public opinion constantly scan it, measure it through surveys and opinion polls, analyse it, influence it, use it, monitor it, react to it and try in a number of ways to change it with a view to making it self-serving.

After the widespread introduction of television, Internet and e-mail, which enable easy and instantaneous uncensored access to news and events in socio-political and economic affairs of the whole world, and with the ability of the general public to expre ss their individual and collective views to wide audience inexpensively, the public opinion environment has changed tremendously, assuming stronger power. With such change it has become a major field of professional practice and a sought-after subject of study, leading to consultants, academics, students and people in the media industry looking around for good books on it of recent origin.

The volume under review is a recent release, written by an experienced author and a senior academic who has rich experience in teaching and researching on the subject and thus able to handle it from many angles -- such as that of teachers, learners and u sers.

The author aims at putting together comprehensively in a single volume the concepts related to theories of public opinion, media monitoring, survey and focus group research, and scanning and monitoring practices. Although there are many books addressing individual topics of this vast subject, the present volume appears to be the first comprehensive book dealing with all the relevant topics in an organised form.

The book is divided into four parts. Part I, subdivided into two chapters, introduces theories and systems relevant to public opinion research. Part II consisting of two chapters addresses the topics of monitoring and analysing the media. The third part comprising four chapters describes research methodologies, while the ninth and the sole chapter of Part IV examines the real impact of the media.

In the opening chapter the author takes the readers to the classical debate among three different schools of philosophers, namely pessimists, pragmatists and optimists, on the role of public opinion in democratic society and the modern debate between gov ernment and corporate leaders on one side and a section of academics on the other regarding the purposes and ends of public opinion research. In the second chapter she discusses the importance of listening to key publics, the sources that feed the organi sational intelligence systems, and approaches to setting up the intelligence function in organisations. The author assumes that corporations are as interested as governments in learning more about how people perceive their organisations and leadership.

The next chapter carries a number of questions that can be asked by the opinion analysts engaged in monitoring the media. The chapter is interestingly divided into several sections with clusters of most commonly asked questions, which are the author's or iginal contribution. The following chapter describes standard content analysis techniques that provide a means for analysing data gathered from media sources, the Internet, correspondence, focus group, and other communication means. This chapter emphasis es media analysis, the most common organisational application.

Chapters five and six (co-authored with Alexandra Hendricks, a researcher) and seven are designed to guide organisational researchers to frame research questions, construct and administer questionnaires, interpret the results of survey research, and crit ique research carried out on their behalf by research firms. The discussion covers only the topics that are most relevant to the work of organisational communicators who implement large-scale survey research projects with the help of outside firms. The e mphasis of the chapters is on creating knowledgeable users and interpreters of survey research. The discussion also covers common errors in designing studies, sampling, framing and organising questions, administering surveys and interpreting results.

Methodologies used in the study of public opinion are covered in the following chapter. It reviews the purposes, strengths and weaknesses of focus groups, the stages through which the groups move, and common participant and moderator behaviours. Other me thodologies include stake-holder assemblies, Q methodologies, and Delphi techniques, which are additional alternatives for gathering opinion data.

In the concluding chapter the author continues her discussion on the modern academic debate started in the introductory chapter, on whether media will have a powerful direct effect on organisations' future in the new millennium. While the government and corporate leaders seem to firmly believe in the powerful influence of media, the academic community does not totally share this conviction.

Organisation of public opinion theories is unique to this book. Although there are many books that address public opinion theories, few books integrate the theoretical and the practical elements of this area of study.

The author has deliberately omitted certain topics such as the literature relevant to the psychology of audiences, reference to market research literature, and standard research methodology. Her emphasis is on determination of opinions and not the thinki ng process behind the opinions.

The volume will serve as a good text for upper level under-graduate or graduate programmes in public relations, the role of public relations in politics, corporate communication, issues management, political communication, and public opinion. The subject is relevant to courses in political management and public opinion. In business schools the book will serve issues management and strategic planning. Corporate communicators, policy analysts and communicators in governments, political consultants, politi cal managers, and training managers will find the book immensely useful.

Graphs, tables, boxes, chapter-end summaries, sample analyses, and information sources given in the book help readers understand the applications easily. Proofreader's lapses and printing mistakes found in the book should be corrected in the subsequent e dition.

P.K. Joy