The Research On Social Functions Of Advertising Public Opinion

Recently,China is in the process of transitioning to consumer society.The dependency and attention from the public to ads are increasing,which allows ads to gain the power to influent every aspect of the society.Its influence has two different directions,one is harmful for social benefit by lots of advertising misconducts,and the other one is helpful for construction of spirited civilization and harmonious society.Therefore,the social functions of advertising public opinion have been absorbed into the mainstream of political concern.There is no doubt that the research on the social function of advertising public opinion is vital important,yet there is not enough reaches on it,which may lead to the lack of guidance of practice of public opinion guiding.So,furthering the research on the social function of advertising public opinion is necessary.The aim of this research is the social function of advertising public opinion,and it leads to three questions.What are the social functions of advertising public opinion,as well as the mechanism of action of them,the performance of those social functions and how to do the public opinion guiding.Once these questions are answered,we can provide evidence and strategies for realizing social control,restraining the dysfuction,also improving the efficiency of public opinion guiding.To answer these questions,as a basis,this research defined the concept of advertising public opinion and its social function,in order to have a clear research boundary.First,combining literature review of existing research of public opinion and advertising public opinion,with the social reality,this research reckons that advertising public opinion is integrative opinion of people who share the common perception,based on common interests with a process of interaction and coordination.Also this research tell the difference between advertising public opinion and propaganda,news public opinion,online public opinion.At the same time,not all the advertising communication activities will lead to advertising public opinion,this research also studied the formation and symbols of advertising public opinion.The number of opinion,the stability of public opinion and vector of opinion are the symbols to distinguish this concept with others.On the top of that,this research examined the meaning of function in different languages,environment,and provide a boundary of the concept of function which are necessity,objectivity,systematicness.As a result,we can get a conclusion of the concept of function which is the objective result of the intrinsic attributes of advertising public opinion system that works for necessary system integration act on social system.At last,based on the review of functionalist theory,this research found that structural functionalism theory is suitable for this research and can be used as the analytical framework.Structural functionalism theory believes that system is a fact that the structure and function of certain system are interdependent symbiont.The structure is the antecedent of the function and the function is the result of the structure.Using this theory is a necessary choice based on the characteristics of advertising public opinion and it can be amended to avoid the disadvantages of this theory.Also,this paper explained the details of how to use this theory that the analysis of social functions of advertising public opinion can be realized by the structure analysis,which means that we need to explore the intrinsic attributes of advertising public opinion system.To be more specific,this research has three explore steps.The first step is to get a hypothesis of the structural elements of advertising public opinion.Based on the theoretical derivation,this research split the system into three parts,which are information resources,information subject and information environment and every part has more detail elements.This hypothesis is also used as the analysis framework for further research.The second step is to select cases of advertising public opinion and use multi case studies to verify and expand the hypothesis of system elements.The case study also provide clues for the follow-up analysis of social function and its mechanism.Combined with the analysis of three case studies,this research correct and provide the system elements of advertising public opinion.The information resource level contains the problem and opinion elements,the information subject level contains advertiser,advertising company,media,audience,opinion leader and other official agency elements,the information soft environment includes mainstream thought,discussion and relevant regulation elements.The research also analyzed the formation process of the advertising public opinion in each case,and provided clues for the process and ways structural elements working for the social system.The third step is using AGIL theory to examine the intrinsic attributes of advertising public opinion system.Through careful analysis,this paper draws the conclusion that under the conditions of adaptation,the intrinsic attribute of the system is the audience orientation of the information set,the comprehensive intervention of the network media,the compromise and resistance to the mainstream ideology.Under the condition of the target,the internal property of the system is the combination of the information resources and the advertising target,the optimization of the advertisement creativity and expression,the agenda setting in the communication,the opinion superposition and the authority authentication.Under the condition of integration,the intrinsic property of the system is the cooperation of the controllable information main body and the encouragement of the audience to participate in the interaction.Under the condition of dimensional model,the intrinsic property of the system is the discussion of the information and the risk control in the communication.Based on the above conclusions,the answers to the first two questions are obtained.We get conclusion of the social function and mechanism of advertising public opinion research.(1)Mirror function,reflected the characteristics of people who share the common perception,the social mainstream ideology and its change,the change of technology development and the innovation of the media.And this function is with the mechanism having advertising target as the core.(2)Public presentation function,which mainly stimulate the expression of opinion and opinion interaction.And this function is with the mechanism having advertising communication as the core;(3)Construction function,which can construct the self and the new relationships.And this function is with the mechanism having benefit as the core.(4)Integration function,which can integrate the advertising industry chain,social thought and behavior.And this function is with the mechanism having rationality as the core.Based on above conclusions and their specific effects on society,this paper answered the third research questions.This paper holds the point of view that the negative function of advertising public opinion is as follows.(1)to hinder the social benefits of news media;(2)to destroy the dual market structure;(3)to damage the interests of the related groups;(4)to intensify social contradictions.In addition,the the key elements of the negative functions were refined.In order to realize the social control,restrain the negative function,and promote the positive function,we should attach importance to the public opinion guidance.The work of advertising public opinion guidance is divided into two levels:the control of mirror function and public presentation function,the control of integration function and construction function.Putting focus on the four cores of social function mechanism of advertising public opinion,this paper puts forward four suggestions,(1)transforming from the management to rational use.(2)strengthen the relevant regulation of the main elements.(3)expanding the "fourth force".(4)promoting the normative development of opinion leader and authority certification industry.