Walter Lippmann: Public Opinion and Perception Management

Walter Lippmann’s ideas have heav­ily influ­enced PR.

Walter Lippmann, one of the most prom­in­ent American journ­al­ists and polit­ic­al com­ment­at­ors of the 20^th cen­tury, left an indelible mark on media, pub­lic opin­ion, and democracy.

His intel­lec­tu­al leg­acy con­tin­ues to shape our under­stand­ing of media’s role in soci­ety, the form­a­tion of pub­lic opin­ion, and the func­tion­ing of demo­crat­ic institutions.

Here goes:

Managing Perceptions of Reality

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Walter Lippmann: Public Opinion and Perception Management

No one is basing their atti­tudes and beha­viours on real­ity; we’re basing them on our per­cep­tions of real­ity.

Walter Lippmann (1889 – 1974) pro­posed that our per­cep­tions of real­ity dif­fer from the actu­al real­ity. The real­ity is too vast and too com­plex for any­one to pro­cess. ¹Lippmann, Walter. 1960. Public Opinion (1922). New York: Macmillan.

• One who effect­ively man­ages the per­cep­tions of pub­lics acts as a mor­al legis­lat­or, cap­able of shap­ing atti­tudes and beha­viours accord­ing to the cat­egor­ic­al imperative.

The research on per­cep­tion man­age­ment is focused on how organ­isa­tions can cre­ate a desired repu­ta­tion:

“The OPM [Organizational Perception Management] field focuses on the range of activ­it­ies that help organ­isa­tions estab­lish and/​or main­tain a desired repu­ta­tion (Staw et al., 1983). More spe­cific­ally, OPM research has primar­ily focused on two inter­re­lated factors: (1) the tim­ing and goals of per­cep­tion man­age­ment activ­it­ies and (2) spe­cif­ic per­cep­tion man­age­ment tac­tics (Elsbach, 2006).”
Source: Organization Development Journal ²Hargis, M. & Watt, John. (2010). Organizational per­cep­tion man­age­ment: A frame­work to over­come crisis events. Organization Development Journal. 28. 73 – 87. … Continue read­ing

Today, our per­cep­tions are heav­ily influ­enced by news media and influ­en­cers, algorithms, and social graphs. Therefore, per­cep­tion man­age­ment is more crit­ic­al than ever before.

“We are all cap­tives of the pic­ture in our head — our belief that the world we have exper­i­enced is the world that really exists.”
— Walter Lippmann (1889 – 1974)

Learn more: Walter Lippmann: Public Opinion and Perception Management

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Walter Lippmann and the Pseudo-Environment

Born in 1889 in New York City, Lippmann began his career in journ­al­ism at an early age, writ­ing for vari­ous pub­lic­a­tions before even­tu­ally becom­ing a co-founder of The New Republic. 

Over the course of his illus­tri­ous career, Lippmann penned numer­ous books, essays, and news­pa­per columns, grap­pling with some of the most press­ing issues of his time. 

Central to Lippmann’s work was his explor­a­tion of the rela­tion­ship between media and democracy. 

In his sem­in­al book, “Public Opinion” (1922), Lippmann dis­sec­ted the pro­cess through which news is dis­sem­in­ated and con­sumed, arguing that the media shapes pub­lic per­cep­tion of real­ity by con­struct­ing a “pseudo-envir­on­ment” that often dis­torts the truth. This idea, which high­lighted journ­al­is­m’s lim­it­a­tions and poten­tial biases, under­scored the import­ance of accur­ate report­ing and the need for a well-informed cit­izenry in a func­tion­ing democracy.

The Manufacturing of Consent

Lippmann’s concept of the “man­u­fac­ture of con­sent” fur­ther illus­trated the power dynam­ics in the media landscape. 

Lippmann argued that a small group of elites, whom he called the “invis­ible gov­ern­ment,” wiel­ded sig­ni­fic­ant influ­ence over pub­lic opin­ion by con­trolling the nar­rat­ive presen­ted in the media. This idea laid the ground­work for future the­or­ies on media manip­u­la­tion and the role of pro­pa­ganda in shap­ing pub­lic discourse.

At the same time, Lippmann was acutely aware of the chal­lenges facing the aver­age cit­izen in mak­ing sense of the com­plex world around them. He pos­ited that indi­vidu­als often rely on “ste­reo­types” or sim­pli­fied men­tal con­structs to pro­cess inform­a­tion and make decisions, which can lead to biases and misconceptions. 

These “ste­reo­types” have pro­found implic­a­tions for how media organ­iz­a­tions present news and how indi­vidu­als inter­pret it, emphas­iz­ing the need for crit­ic­al think­ing and media lit­er­acy in nav­ig­at­ing the mod­ern inform­a­tion landscape.

The Omnicompetent Citizen

Despite his scep­ti­cism about the abil­ity of the gen­er­al pub­lic to engage mean­ing­fully with the com­plex­it­ies of con­tem­por­ary issues, Lippmann remained a staunch advoc­ate for demo­crat­ic principles. 

In his later work, “The Phantom Public” (1925), Lippmann grappled with the concept of the “omni­com­pet­ent cit­izen” and the role of pub­lic opin­ion in demo­crat­ic gov­ernance. He con­ten­ded that while the aver­age cit­izen may not pos­sess the expert­ise neces­sary to dir­ectly influ­ence policy decisions, they still hold the power to keep decision-makers account­able through the bal­lot box.

Lippmann’s ideas on the role of journ­al­ism in demo­cracy also exten­ded to his advocacy for a respons­ible and eth­ic­al press. He was a key pro­ponent of object­ive journ­al­ism, arguing that report­ers should strive to provide unbiased, fac­tu­al inform­a­tion to their audi­ences.

Media, Public Opinion, and Democracy

In con­clu­sion, Walter Lippmann’s con­tri­bu­tions to our under­stand­ing of media, pub­lic opin­ion, and demo­cracy have left an endur­ing impact on the fields of journ­al­ism, polit­ic­al sci­ence, and com­mu­nic­a­tion studies. 

His insights into the power dynam­ics in the media land­scape, the lim­it­a­tions of pub­lic know­ledge, and the respons­ib­il­it­ies of the press in a demo­crat­ic soci­ety remain as rel­ev­ant today as they were dur­ing his lifetime.

In the con­stantly evolving media land­scape, Walter Lippmann’s ideas on the inter­play between media, pub­lic opin­ion, and demo­cracy provide a valu­able frame­work for under­stand­ing the chal­lenges and respons­ib­il­it­ies that both media organ­isa­tions and indi­vidu­al cit­izens face. 

By draw­ing on Lippmann’s insights, we can strive to cre­ate more informed, engaged, and crit­ic­al pub­lics cap­able of nav­ig­at­ing the com­plex­it­ies of the mod­ern inform­a­tion land­scape and hold­ing decision-makers account­able in pur­su­ing a healthy, func­tion­ing democracy.

Suggested Literature

Lippmann, W. (1922). Public opin­ion. Harcourt, Brace and Company.

Lippmann, W. (1925). The phantom pub­lic. Harcourt, Brace and Company.

Steel, R. (1980). Walter Lippmann and the American Century. Little, Brown and Company.

Schudson, M. (2008). Why demo­cra­cies need an unlov­able press. Polity.

McNair, B. (2011). An intro­duc­tion to polit­ic­al com­mu­nic­a­tion (5^th ed.). Routledge.

PR Resource: Notable PR Professionals

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Notable PR Contributors

• Edward Bernays — The Father of PR
• Ivy Lee and the First Press Release
• P.T. Barnum: “There’s No Such Thing as Bad Publicity”
• Walter Lippmann: Public Opinion and Perception Management
• John Dewey and the ‘P’ in Public Relations
• Marshall McLuhan: “The Medium is the Message”
• Leon Festinger — The Psychologist Behind Cognitive Dissonance
• Shep Gordon: “Make Parents Angry”

It’s noted that the gender bias is appar­ent here. I’m cur­rently research­ing a more bal­anced list.

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PR Resource: The Anatomy of Attention

“There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
— Oscar Wilde

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The Anatomy of Attention

Attention is an essen­tial com­pon­ent of pub­lic relations:

• An organ­isa­tion, starved of atten­tion, trust, and loy­alty, is com­pelled to wage a per­petu­al struggle for its con­tin­ued existence.

And it’s not just organ­isa­tions. We all seem to crave atten­tion in some form or another:

“People want to be loved; fail­ing that admired; fail­ing that feared; fail­ing that hated and des­pised. They want to evoke some sort of sen­ti­ment. The soul shud­ders before obli­vi­on and seeks con­nec­tion at any price.”
— Hjalmar Söderberg (1869−1941), Swedish author

It’s fear of social isol­a­tion— and atten­tion star­va­tion.

But what con­sti­tutes ‘atten­tion’?

“Attention is a com­plex, real neur­al archi­tec­ture (‘RNA’) mod­el that integ­rates vari­ous cog­nit­ive mod­els and brain cen­ters to per­form tasks like visu­al search.”
Source: Trends in cog­nit­ive sci­ences ³Shipp, S. (2004). The brain cir­cuitry of atten­tion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 223 – 230. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​j​.​t​i​c​s​.​2​0​0​4​.​0​3​.​004

Each of the below terms refers to a spe­cif­ic aspect or type of atten­tion (“men­tal band­width”), a com­plex cog­nit­ive pro­cess. ⁴Schweizer, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Goldhammer, F. (2005). The struc­ture of the rela­tion­ship between atten­tion and intel­li­gence. Intelligence, 33(6), 589 – 611. … Continue read­ing

Let’s explore dif­fer­ent types of attention:

• Alertness. This is the state of being watch­ful and ready to respond. It’s the most basic form of atten­tion, rep­res­ent­ing our read­i­ness to per­ceive and pro­cess inform­a­tion from the environment.
• Sustained atten­tion. This involves focus­ing on a spe­cif­ic task or stim­u­lus over a pro­longed peri­od. It’s cru­cial for tasks that require ongo­ing con­cen­tra­tion, like read­ing or driving.
• Focused atten­tion. This refers to the abil­ity to con­cen­trate on one par­tic­u­lar stim­u­lus or task while ignor­ing oth­ers. It’s the abil­ity to focus nar­rowly on a single thing.
• Attentional switch­ing. Also known as task switch­ing or cog­nit­ive flex­ib­il­ity, this involves shift­ing focus from one task to anoth­er. It’s crit­ic­al for mul­ti­task­ing and adapt­ing to chan­ging demands or priorities.
• Divided atten­tion. This is the abil­ity to pro­cess two or more responses or react to mul­tiple tasks sim­ul­tan­eously. It’s often tested by ask­ing people to per­form two tasks sim­ul­tan­eously, like listen­ing to a con­ver­sa­tion while writing.
• Attention accord­ing to the super­vis­ory atten­tion­al sys­tem. This concept, derived from cog­nit­ive psy­cho­logy, refers to a high­er-level con­trol sys­tem that reg­u­lates the alloc­a­tion of atten­tion, par­tic­u­larly in situ­ations requir­ing plan­ning or decision-making.
• Attention as inhib­i­tion. This aspect of atten­tion involves sup­press­ing irrel­ev­ant or dis­tract­ing stim­uli. It’s a cru­cial com­pon­ent of focused atten­tion and self-regulation.
• Spatial atten­tion. This type of atten­tion focuses on a spe­cif­ic area with­in the visu­al field. It’s like a spot­light that enhances inform­a­tion pro­cessing in a par­tic­u­lar location.
• Attention as plan­ning. This per­spect­ive views atten­tion as a resource that needs to be alloc­ated effi­ciently, espe­cially in com­plex tasks requir­ing stra­tegic plan­ning and organization.
• Interference. In the con­text of atten­tion, inter­fer­ence refers to the pro­cess by which irrel­ev­ant inform­a­tion or dis­trac­tions impede the effi­ciency of cog­nit­ive processing.
• Attention as arous­al. This con­siders atten­tion in the con­text of the gen­er­al level of alert­ness or arous­al. It’s about the read­i­ness of the brain to engage with stim­uli or tasks.
• Attention accord­ing to the assess­ment tra­di­tion. This refers to meas­ur­ing and eval­u­at­ing atten­tion­al pro­cesses, often in clin­ic­al or edu­ca­tion­al set­tings, to identi­fy atten­tion defi­cits or disorders.

Each type of atten­tion plays a cru­cial role in how we inter­act with and pro­cess inform­a­tion from our envir­on­ment, and under­stand­ing these dif­fer­ent aspects is key in fields like psy­cho­logy, neur­os­cience, and education.

Learn more: The Anatomy of Attention

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR ideas.

“There’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
— Oscar Wilde

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

The Anatomy of Attention

Attention is an essen­tial com­pon­ent of pub­lic relations:

• An organ­isa­tion, starved of atten­tion, trust, and loy­alty, is com­pelled to wage a per­petu­al struggle for its con­tin­ued existence.

And it’s not just organ­isa­tions. We all seem to crave atten­tion in some form or another:

“People want to be loved; fail­ing that admired; fail­ing that feared; fail­ing that hated and des­pised. They want to evoke some sort of sen­ti­ment. The soul shud­ders before obli­vi­on and seeks con­nec­tion at any price.”
— Hjalmar Söderberg (1869−1941), Swedish author

It’s fear of social isol­a­tion— and atten­tion star­va­tion.

But what con­sti­tutes ‘atten­tion’?

“Attention is a com­plex, real neur­al archi­tec­ture (‘RNA’) mod­el that integ­rates vari­ous cog­nit­ive mod­els and brain cen­ters to per­form tasks like visu­al search.”
Source: Trends in cog­nit­ive sci­ences ⁵Shipp, S. (2004). The brain cir­cuitry of atten­tion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 223 – 230. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​1​6​/​j​.​t​i​c​s​.​2​0​0​4​.​0​3​.​004

Each of the below terms refers to a spe­cif­ic aspect or type of atten­tion (“men­tal band­width”), a com­plex cog­nit­ive pro­cess. ⁶Schweizer, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Goldhammer, F. (2005). The struc­ture of the rela­tion­ship between atten­tion and intel­li­gence. Intelligence, 33(6), 589 – 611. … Continue read­ing

Let’s explore dif­fer­ent types of attention:

• Alertness. This is the state of being watch­ful and ready to respond. It’s the most basic form of atten­tion, rep­res­ent­ing our read­i­ness to per­ceive and pro­cess inform­a­tion from the environment.
• Sustained atten­tion. This involves focus­ing on a spe­cif­ic task or stim­u­lus over a pro­longed peri­od. It’s cru­cial for tasks that require ongo­ing con­cen­tra­tion, like read­ing or driving.
• Focused atten­tion. This refers to the abil­ity to con­cen­trate on one par­tic­u­lar stim­u­lus or task while ignor­ing oth­ers. It’s the abil­ity to focus nar­rowly on a single thing.
• Attentional switch­ing. Also known as task switch­ing or cog­nit­ive flex­ib­il­ity, this involves shift­ing focus from one task to anoth­er. It’s crit­ic­al for mul­ti­task­ing and adapt­ing to chan­ging demands or priorities.
• Divided atten­tion. This is the abil­ity to pro­cess two or more responses or react to mul­tiple tasks sim­ul­tan­eously. It’s often tested by ask­ing people to per­form two tasks sim­ul­tan­eously, like listen­ing to a con­ver­sa­tion while writing.
• Attention accord­ing to the super­vis­ory atten­tion­al sys­tem. This concept, derived from cog­nit­ive psy­cho­logy, refers to a high­er-level con­trol sys­tem that reg­u­lates the alloc­a­tion of atten­tion, par­tic­u­larly in situ­ations requir­ing plan­ning or decision-making.
• Attention as inhib­i­tion. This aspect of atten­tion involves sup­press­ing irrel­ev­ant or dis­tract­ing stim­uli. It’s a cru­cial com­pon­ent of focused atten­tion and self-regulation.
• Spatial atten­tion. This type of atten­tion focuses on a spe­cif­ic area with­in the visu­al field. It’s like a spot­light that enhances inform­a­tion pro­cessing in a par­tic­u­lar location.
• Attention as plan­ning. This per­spect­ive views atten­tion as a resource that needs to be alloc­ated effi­ciently, espe­cially in com­plex tasks requir­ing stra­tegic plan­ning and organization.
• Interference. In the con­text of atten­tion, inter­fer­ence refers to the pro­cess by which irrel­ev­ant inform­a­tion or dis­trac­tions impede the effi­ciency of cog­nit­ive processing.
• Attention as arous­al. This con­siders atten­tion in the con­text of the gen­er­al level of alert­ness or arous­al. It’s about the read­i­ness of the brain to engage with stim­uli or tasks.
• Attention accord­ing to the assess­ment tra­di­tion. This refers to meas­ur­ing and eval­u­at­ing atten­tion­al pro­cesses, often in clin­ic­al or edu­ca­tion­al set­tings, to identi­fy atten­tion defi­cits or disorders.

Each type of atten­tion plays a cru­cial role in how we inter­act with and pro­cess inform­a­tion from our envir­on­ment, and under­stand­ing these dif­fer­ent aspects is key in fields like psy­cho­logy, neur­os­cience, and education.

Learn more: The Anatomy of Attention

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