The Evolution Of Public Opinion And Social Control

Public opinion almost has the same long history with human. With the social forms and media technologies developing, public opinion shows the different characteristics and functions. Especially in the network society, everyone has a "microphone". The media gateway for thousands of years is broken, which make "gatekeepers" powerless. But this kind of public opinion is really free? In the long history of human development, what role and what function did public opinion play? Based on the nature of society and the strength of public opinion checking, this thesis broadly divided the development of public opinion to three stages, which are original opinion,opinion by checked and public opinion Online. The three stages as vertical axis, social control as the horizontal axis, under the guidance of communication, with historiography and sociology theory, the this paper get something that is the Separated characteristics of the three opinion and the relationship between public opinion and social control.The original opinion was the main psychological factors which united all the clan members for collective wor,the common beliefs and custom, so that the primitive society could exist and develop. It was the way to control primitive society which didn't have primitive classes and interests. So the original opinion controlled the society directly. The "Gatekeeper communication" stage covered slave society, feudal society and the mass media age, opinion by checked controlled the society indirectly and artificially. The opinion was the ideology of the political and economic groups, instead of the real comments from the masses. At this moment, the opinion by checked has alienated to a tool for seeking benefits, which helped political and economic groups control the society. However, the network society which is free,equak virtual makes the "gatekeeper" of public opinion weak. Public opinion Online returns to the original ecology of true inner thoughts, so that it becomes a tool for all sectors of society to play interest games. With the deepening of social contradictions, the online "citizen consultation" could unite internet users to dialogize and consult with the strong political power rationally. So far, after "gun" and "idea" of social control, public opinion will walk on the road of citizen consultation.