Popular opinion refers to the views or opinions that held by the majority of the public about a particular issue of interest which may either be social, economic or political issue. Socialization process refers to the processes through which people come together and interact to discuss on issue that affect their daily lives. Media has a wide influence on the public opinion and can sway the views held by people about a particular topic of interests (Shamir, 2000). They help in shaping the popular opinion. The media influences the way people perceive a particular subject through analysing of the available facts or through spread of propaganda to influence the people’s opinions about the issue of study.
The process of forming a public opinion starts with the setting of agenda about the topic of interest which is usually done by the media to the world. The setting of the agenda determines what is worthy to be broadcasted as news and then it is reported to the public (Shamir, 2000). The manner and the way in which the issue is reported to the public play a very big role in determination of the perception and influence of the issue to the public.
The formation of public opinion is also influenced by the way the broadcasted news is framed. The framing process determines how well the issue will be covered by the public so that it can sway the public views and opinions on an interested side of interest (Shoemaker & Reese, 2006). For example, in forming a political public opinion, the news being broadcasted may be framed by the media in a particular manner to favour a particular political candidate. The role of public opinion has been widely applied by the economists in trying to influence the economic order to function in their own stipulated way. For example, economists in favour of socialism are interested in framing news in manner that portrays socialism as evil and should not exists in the society while on the other hand, capitalists portray economic news to be in favour of capitalism and help in shaping their ways of functioning of the economy.
The desires of the society also determine the popular public opinion. By use of the social desirability and based on the agenda of the media, they frame news in manner that acts top mislead the public and sway their opinions to believe and hence hold popular opinions of what they believe to be good (Shoemaker & Reese, 2006). As a result, the public may be swayed to believe in holding an opinion that is not true and that is very far from truth suggested by the public.
There is a very wide gap that exists between the popular opinion and the Stanford’s interpretation of the economic reality. The public have been made to believe and hold fast the views that capitalism economy functions far much better than the socialism economy. This is the popular economic opinion that is held in the world today. However, Stanford formulates the facts from his book ‘Economics for all people’ that capitalism is destructive and it only serves the interests of the minority at the expense of the public interests (Stanford, 2008). Stanford holds that economics depends on social relationships and is very dynamic as opposed to the particular held opinion that Economy is natural and statistic and it deposed on the natural laws. Stanford puts the facts that capitalists economists only use the popular public opinion to create a false financial deceit since he claims economics sis not a science but an of art of financial deceit which aims to explain to the poor masses the reasons why they should be poor while others in the economy are rich. He says that capitalism economy is not designed to bring any good or is not in the favour of public interests since the economy is controlled by private investors and the drive for economic prosperity is not based on the pursuit of public interest rather than pursuit of self-interests and greedy. He argues that contrary to the popular opinions, the good things that came as a result of capitalism are as a result of the chance, or accident and they are not planned as it is widely held opinion (Stanford, 2008).
He states that the government is not enemy of the economy as it is commonly believed but he goes further to state that the government only functions to facilitate the capitalism in disguise of pursuit of private interests.
Stanford has suggested several facts that if well understood can change the economic policy and thus lead to pursuit of public interest rather than private interests. He suggests that if the private property could be placed under the state ownership or ownership of non-profit making companies, the economy would be enhanced since the motive of these institutions would be profit maximization rather than pursuit of own interests. Many resources that are spend in making advertisements and pushing for responsible operation of the business by private investors could be placed in production of more resources and eliminating poverty leading to economic empowerment of all people (Stanford, 2008).
He also suggest a larger role for economic planning where all actions should be aimed at promoting the welfare of the public rather than welfare of the private investors and this could serve as an effective tool of elimination of processes that should be enforced under capitalism using resources such as the conservation of the environment (Stanford, 2008). He also suggests that financial institutions are not themselves productive and they do not contribute to any increase in the production of goods and services since the players only use paper assets in exchange of resources that could be invested further in the economy to help in the production of goods and services.
There is very a very close relationship between the social policy and the economy as suggested by Stanford. Social policy is designed and framed in manner that aims at promoting the social justice in the society through ensuring fair distribution of natural, social and economic resources over generations (Spicker, 2012). In the society, there is a wide conflict of ideas as suggest by Marx in the Marxist ideas. Capitalism society is made of two groups of people, the rich and the poor masses. The government functions to promote the welfare of the businesses and also legitimizes the system to ensure there are social welfare programs, heath pension schemes and the other social programs that are aimed at protecting the public interests and facilitating the increased flow of resources from the rich to the poor (Kennedy, Lilam, 2003). However, Stanford suggests that this relationship is not fulfilled in a capitalism economy and the government only pretends to be legitimate. He suggests that this relationship exists well in the socialism economy since all economic decisions and actions are aimed at promoting the public welfare.
The changes that have been suggested by the author have an effect of introducing a socialism economy in the society. The placement of controls of the private owned property inn the hands of the state or non-profit pursuit industries would have an effect of weakening the society. The author has not taken in to consideration the facts that nobody likes to work and that if there are no incentives for work, people would be willing to work less and hence leads to decrease in productivity and output. The incentives for work in capitalism economy are mainly due to pursuit for profit maximization and the creation of wealth. If these incentives are removed, people will be willing to work less in the society and this would lead to decrease in output. Therefore, his suggestions will have negative effects on the environment and will lead to decrease in productivity. However, the suggestions of tightening the government regulations on private owners would have a positive effect on promoting the social welfare of the poor masses in the society. This would also ensure the protection of the environment which is very essential to ensure maximum production of goods and services from the natural resources. Therefore, a well-functioning economy should be an economy that promotes capitalism but with a government that has legitimized the system to ensure the interests of the poor masses are protected.
References
Shamir J. (2000). The Anatomy of Public Opinion, Ann Arbor, 6th edition, University of Michigan Press,
Spicker P. (2012). An introduction to Social Policy: Aberdeen, Scotland: The Robert Gordon University; Retrieved from http://www2.rgu.ac.uk/publicpolicy/introduction/pol.htm
Stanfold J (2008).Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism 1st edition, Fernwood Publishing Co Ltd
Shoemaker, P.J. and Reese , S.D. (2006) Mediating the Message- Theories of Influences on Media content, 3rd edition, New York : Longman
Kennedy, Liam (2003): Economic Theory of Co-operative Enterprises: Selected Readings, The Plunkett Foundation for Co-operative Studies, 1st edition, McGraw Hill
