The Spiraling Silence and Social Networks: A Critical Evaluation of the Pew Research Study

Are Americans really adhering to egalitarianism and – as rational citizens – expressing their viewpoints? Apparently not. We might think that social media provides the world an escape to voice their opinions and augment their understanding of issues in reality. Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social networking tools have become powerful doors which open to the wide arenas of political and social arguments and exchange of dialogues. The actuality is that we are ‘silenced’ by our own society – in real life as well as on virtual networks. A prominent report by the Pew Research Center titled “Social Media and the ‘Spiral of Silence’” shows that users of social media were less likely to discuss a contentious issue like Edward Snowden and the NSA’s surveillance allegations on social networking websites than in person. Although this report is based on some assumptions, it is a detailed analysis of a phenomena which is closely related to the underlying theory.

In the research study by Pew Research Center, about 1800 American adults were surveyed in 2013 about how willing would they be to discuss the issue of NSA’s surveillance and Edward Snowden freely in several settings through online and physical mediums. The respondents were assumed to have a quasi-statistical sense which is elucidated later in this paper. Statistical modelling was performed to keep factors like age, gender, race among others constant. The outcomes of the study demonstrated that social media did not provide an alternative forum for discussing the issue about Edward Snowden and NSA, moreover, people were more willing to discuss about the issue in person than in social media and they were more inclined to do so when the audience agreed with their viewpoints.

The authors of this study – Hampton et.al – associated the results of this phenomena to the ‘Spiral of Silence’ theory which was proposed by a prominent German political scientist Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann in early 1970s. The ‘Spiral of Silence’ theory suggests that individuals tend to be reluctant to express their views if they consider them to be in minority due the fear of being isolated from their society – in this case their friends and acquaintances on social media websites (Scheufele, 2015). This fear of isolation forms a critical factor and assumption of the ‘Spiral of Silence’ theory. The mechanism of the theory, as the name suggests, is a spiral in visualization. Firstly, the society pressurizes individuals to reach a common consensus. The individuals then analyze their social networks to see if their views fit the majority. This is followed by the individuals identifying their views as minority and not willing to express them. As a final step, one opinion is formulated and is established as a social norm- and this is where the spiral ends. Some of the assumptions of the ‘Spiral of Silence’ theory include the notion that people are going to speak out and they experience the fear of isolation during the process. The theory also assumes that because people start fearing the society, they act in a certain way in order to agree to conformity. In the context of this study, this means that the researchers assumed that fear of isolation was a key factor in peoples’ unwillingness to speak out or come to a common agreement. Another key assumption is the presence of quasi-statistical sense or the assumption that people can weigh public opinion and figure out what other people are trying to say. In other words, the American adults surveyed were assumed to have a good sense of interpretation of others’ opinions in order to classify them as majority or minority.

Looking back at some of the key findings of the study – social media did not serve as an alternate forum for people to discuss the Snowden-NSA issue, and people were less likely to talk about the issue on social media than in person. In both real and virtual settings, people were more likely to discuss this issue given their audience was affirmative towards their opinion. This again ties back to the ‘Spiral of Silence’ which implies that people might express more in case when they feel they share a majority opinion and don’t feel pressurized. The researchers conducted a relevant analysis of the data – and most of these statistics were documented in charts and percentages which give a clear idea of the causation. In addition, the study considered different scenarios in which people would likely be able to discuss the topic. The study also considered other factors that would lead people to speak out about a certain issue – including their grasp on knowledge on the issue, their interest, and the strength of their viewpoints. Overall, the results from the surveys – which was a set of the well-planed questionnaire- were correlated from agreement to disagreement over horizontal bar charts for comparison. The results were relevant and the justice to data interpretation is evident within the scope of the study.

In agreement with the research study’s results and analysis, although the study did not take into account of why the respondents stayed silent in case they felt their viewpoint was part of minority, the study evaluated the factors which governed situations under which people would speak out or express their opinions – which comprise of confidence, interest, and strength of opinion. Firstly, fear of isolation is a critical assumption in the ‘Spiral of Silence’ theory and the researchers have done justice to address that and minimized the error involved. Secondly, the NSA-Snowden issue that is central to the outcomes of this study is an exhaustive snapshot of the political and key issues that the American public is in doubt and where the ‘Spiral of Silence’ theory is most likely to act. As mentioned in the study, in the NSA-Snowden issue, Americans were divided by opinion on almost 50-50 percentage basis. This is in harmonization with the three components which are necessary for phenomena like ‘Spiral of Silence’ and other media effects to be in place which are the moral component of the issue, the dynamic aspect of public opinion, and the consonant and dominant messages shown by the media coverage everywhere. This is in agreement with NSA-Snowden issue as 58% of the public collected information regarding this issue from TV and radio. This implies the presence of consonant and ubiquitous messages that most like would have influenced the public opinion. Additionally, when it comes to NSA-Snowden story, the partisan factors and breach of privacy accounts for the moral and dynamic essence of the situation. Thirdly, the evidence supported in the study that people were more likely to speak out in situations where their opinions were accepted is a direct effect of the ‘Spiral of Silence’.

Finally, the fact that out of 14% of the Americans not willing to discuss about Snowden-NSA issue, only a small percentage (0.3%) claimed that they would be open to discussion on the social media. This proves that social media is not an alternative to affairs in the physical world and also relates to the ‘Spiral of Silence’ in the sense that social media comprises of a larger audience as well as people who might have been carried away by the majority opinion. Also, on social media, people have greater freedom to scan their social environment which in fact creates a fear of isolation or a conformity to a general opinion. In addition to that, the researchers have also controlled various demographic and age factors by surveying American adults within a similar age bracket. This is an act of justice as according to the ‘Spiral of Silence’, people might have difference of opinion rooting to their age or demographic/culture.

Overall, the research study by Pew Research Center analyzes the ‘Spiral of Silence’ factor with relation to the NSA-Snowden issue. The study highlights that social media hasn’t changed the scenario of the ‘Spiral of Silence’ which is playing the same role in online and offline settings as people try to hide their viewpoints where they are a minority and fear the pressure of being neglected. Although the data involved in the study does not show that ‘Spiral of Silence’ can be influenced in online settings from offline settings, it is strongly suggested and implied.

References

Social Media and the ‘Spiral of Silence’ (2014, August 26).