EOTO 2 Reflection

EOTO Theories 

    While listening to the different presentations aside from my topic of agenda setting and gatekeeping, another topic I found interesting is the spiral of silence. The spiral of silence is a theory when someone has an opinion on a topic that is controversial topic. Majority of that group has the opposite opinion on the same topic. This theory shows that people might change or hid their opinion in group settings. This is looked at as more of a negative thing because people might be to nervous to share their own opinion on a topic that people might not agree with them on. 

    An example that we commonly see this in this is threw politics. When having friends and family that agree in different things politically, this can lead to different arguments and falling outs. This is when the spiral of silence comes into play, people choose to stay silent instead of speaking up for something they believe in. Speaking from experience my family is very spilt down the middle politically. During the holidays it is always a topic we try to avoid or switch the conversion. This is another perfect example of the spiral of silence that people might not even release is happening.