Creation of Public Opinion

Running head: CREATION OF PUBLIC OPINION
CREATION OF PUBLIC OPINION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1CREATION OF PUBLIC OPINION
Public opinion on specific issues that have the potential to impact the entire societies are
vital and often face ethical questions and issues regarding the sanctity of the same. Issues
pertaining to abortion, euthanasia and usage of foetal tissues for research purposes are such
things that require public opinion in great amount when making policies on them. The ethical
grounds of public opinions cannot always be relied upon, however (Kellner 2014). If ethical
ideals and notions were to be built simply upon public opinion, a simple opinion poll could have
been conducted and a majority view would have been sufficient enough to make the law.
However, this is not the actual case in most scenarios and contrasting views often create a
tension among differing opinions. The normative assumptions of Habermas’ communicative
ethics and its likely consequences as well as the related notions of the public sphere has been one
of the major topics of discussion and debate over the years. His theories on morality and self,
have often been criticised as being too utopian and that they cannot be a reality (Kluge and Negt
2016).
Public sphere refers to the domain of an individual’s social life where public opinion can
be formed. By default, and principle, every human being has the right to access the public
sphere. Private people come together as a group to form the public and this mass often is the
deciding factor for opinions that are the driving force for public policy making. The public is
subjected to the state’s bureaucracy regulations and are also obligated to obedience to these
regulations (Habermas 2015). On the other hand, the state assures them that they can amass and
gather freely to express their opinions and publicise them to make policies come to enactments.
Dissemination and certain degree of influence is essential when the public is large and requires
the state to keep an eye on the opinions that are being formed by them. Ethical dilemma is the
sole reason that makes public opinion to be scrutinised. Public communication forums like

2CREATION OF PUBLIC OPINION
newspapers, radio and other media platforms help to form and direct the public opinion
depending on the circumstances and the prevailing conditions (Feinstein 2015). One of the most
major incidents of public opinions creating a problem on ethical grounds is the example of the
abortion laws in Ireland. Public opinions and the state laws were in different poles and the
tension that arose on ethical terms resulted in the government facing a lot of criticism for
supporting the law and being blind to the obvious problem that ultimately resulted in the death of
a person, simply because the Christian laws of the country banned abortion.
Jurgen Habermas is one of the most influential philosophers in the current times. Political
thoughts and communication and knowledge are the two most significant sides of his works and
most of it are comprised based on these two and establishment of different theories pertaining to
these issues (McCombs 2014). To understand his views on the public sphere, one must first
understand the existing political and social settings in which Habermas grew up in. the post war
German society and the Nuremberg Trials were some of the major things that shaped his views
and his understandings of the failures of the country under the National Socialist Party (Guth and
Marsh 2016). When Heidegger failed to answer his public call for explanation regarding the
support that was shown, by the former, towards National Socialism, he was further convinced
that the German school of philosophy had failed its purpose when it was needed the most and
most of the contemporary philosophers had failed to understand the evils of Nazism, resulting in
their ability to criticise the same (Bernays 2015). His own negative experiences led him to study
further on the relationships between philosophy and politics and subsequently the theories on
communication and ethical grounds or public opinion were formed.
Habermas began to develop to consecutive theories regarding the relationship between
social science theories and modern societies on one hand, and a normative as well as