On Lippmann 's Public View

Walter Lippmann, a famous writer, journalist and political commentator in the United States, was an important scholar in the history of Communication. The writer of this article attempts to sort out his ideological evolution during the 1920s and try to explore the reasons behind it by the clue of "public".Lippmann was in the center of World War I, witnessed the News organizations give up the "fact", which was the highest standard of journalism, and personally felt the confusion and blind obedience of the public under the patriotism heat wave. All of these triggered his thinking of the public. In Liberty and the News, he put his reliance on the public and democracy, and insisted that the public could arrive at the truth and democratic crisis could be lifted, as long as the "fact" back to the highest standard of journalism. The hope was broken soon, however, as the propaganda spread in the fields of political and business after the war. He considered that social interaction and language itself limited the public’s perception of the world outside, except the pseudo-environment constructed by the journalism in Public Opinion. At the same time, the existing stereotypes in people’s mind were constantly forming and consolidating. Therefore, the public was difficult to arrive at the truth, and was impossible to form the Public Opinion on the basis of the truth. At this time, Lippmann had begun to suspect the ability of the public, and the suspicion developed to the extent of despair after the shock of returning to Europe. In The Phantom Public, he viewed the public as the audience deaf and dumb, who had no abilities and no interests in the public affairs, sitting in the back of the theatre. They were easy to be used by the authoritarian without realizing, and likely developed to mass tyranny. In Lippmann’s opinion, the rational public in traditional democratic theory became a phantom. As a result, the public must be in its place, and pass the task of social governance on to the elite, and Lippmann himself was just the elite he called "the Insider".To some extent, we could see Lippmann’s thoughts as the echo of Social Science in the field of Journalism and Communication. Lippmann studied in Harvard University when he was young, deeply influenced by three professors in terms of stereotypes, pragmatism and democracy. They were Graham Wallas, William James and George Santayana. Lippmann’s view about the public was profoundly affected by them, in addition to his own experience in the later years.In his three books, Liberty and the News, Public Opinion, and The Phantom Public, Lippmann’s attitude to the public was more and more disappointed, which reflected not only his discontent and rebellion to the American Century, but also the careful considerations of the public, the Public Opinion and the democracy. All these considerations are still glaring today.