Public Opinion

Starting from the early twentieth century, the concept of public opinion has become a focus point in the work of social science scholars. Its central role derives, on the one hand, from the complexity and diversification of the study approaches (political science, sociology, psychology, and communication), and on the other from its configuration as a trait d’union between individual and collective entity in the public context. The evolution of this concept – summarized in elementary terms as the set of sentiments expressed by citizens with regard to certain issues – went hand in hand with the transformations of the political and media systems. Thus, in the so-called audience democracy, which sees political figures involved in a direct and bidirectional interaction with the citizens – thanks to the affordances of social media platforms, political action is increasingly identified with communicative action, and monitoring the public opinion becomes a fundamental element in the design of the political action.