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.